IMPORTANT MESSAGE

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE THIS BIBLE STUDY THAT YOU BEGIN AT THE INTRODUCTION AS IT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE OTHERWISE. PLEASE USE THE ARCHIVES AT THE RIGHT.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Revelatioion 17:4-12

Verse 4 “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:”

The woman is dressed in purple and scarlet. In Bible times purple was an expensive commodity as it was difficult to obtain. (Lydia [Acts 16:14] was a seller of purple cloth.) So she is dressed in colors that are expensive. She is decked out with gold and jewels and has a golden cup in her hand. This lady is rich…filthy rich. If we are looking for a wealthy entity that describes one country in particular in this day and age we don't have to look far. In spite of the fact that our national debt is beyond ever dealing with, we live as the richest people on the planet. The cup the whore holds is full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornications. Yes, I think that pretty much describes America. Our media industry alone is filthy beyond belief, whether movies, TV, games, music, books, or magazines. You cannot leave your home without being assaulted by filth, in fact it infiltrates your home if you so much as let the world enter in any respect. Even the mail brings unsolicited filth. Our country's morality is at an all time low and it lusts after those things which feed that depravity.

Verse 5 “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

She has a name branded upon her forehead. It announces who she is, just like the scarlet letter "A" in the novel of the same name. She is Babylon the Great, the queen of her kind. Not only is she the queen of harlots, she is the mother of all harlots and abominations. She has a multitude of progeny.

Verse 6 “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

She is guilty of killing the saints and martyrs of Jesus. She has been killing God’s people right from the start and has filled her cup so full that she is actually drunk from drinking their blood. John wonders at the sight of her. He is in awe of her for she is an awesome creature. Not in a good way, but you can be in awe of something that is so wondrous, whether it is bad or good. I think it would be better to say that John is incredulous. At first glance it would seem that he admires her from the way it is stated, but it is not that kind of admiration. There are times when you can appreciate an enemy’s abilities while not approving them. You wonder at their ability to do what they have done. For instance, Satan is a remarkable adversary. He is a master of deceit, the best there is. I can give credit to him for being the master of his craft, but I do not approve of his craft. Likewise, Babylon has been unbelievably good at leading people astray from God and killing those who follow Him. She is a master of her craft and is covered with the glory of her abilities and deceptions. It is probably safe to say that she was beautiful to behold also, as if she were hideous, people would not flock after her. Is not sin always tempting to behold?

Verse 7 “And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.”

The angel asks John why he is so amazed at her. He should actually be familiar with her, as this woman has been worshiped since Noah’s day, but John apparently does not immediately recognize her or understand the symbolism of the beast which carries her. The angel tells John that he will explain her and the beast. Again, we see that God explains symbolic devices that He uses in Scripture, so that we do not have to guess as to what they mean. This also lets you know that when this occurs, it is not meant to be taken literally, thereby by implication saying that everything else should be taken literally.

Verse 8-12 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which has wisdom. the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

These verses were discussed when we covered the history of the beast in chapter 13, so it is not necessary to repeat that information here.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Revelation 17:1-3

Before getting into chapter 17, we need to go back to the history of Babylon that we covered back in Genesis. It was shown that this mystery religion originated at the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. We briefly saw that this mystery religion traveled with people when dispersed at Babel and continued on in the faith of many countries with the so-called gods having different names in different countries due to the many languages that God created at Babel. However, the headquarters of the mysteries themselves continued on in specific locations. We saw that the headquarters moved from Babel (Babylon) to Egypt and from there presumably to Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman empire, as they became the dominating world powers. While the mysteries controlled these world powers, Babylon herself did not always reside in the specific city associated with that empire. For instance, we know that when John received this revelation, Babylon’s (ultimately Satan’s) throne was located in Pergamos where Diana worship (another name for Babylon) was going on. Hence the mention of it in the letter to the church there in the second chapter of Revelation. It appears historically that Babylon moved into the organized Christian church when Constantine merged Christianity into paganism. She resided there in the Roman Church where she worked particularly through a group that arose, called the Rosicrusians. During the Crusades, these men were said to have found things while in Jerusalem that led them into the deep mysteries of Babylon and Satanic worship. They brought this back into the church for while, but due to greed and jealousy, these men were purged out of the church by a king and a pope during the time of the inquisition. Most of them were put to death, however a few survived and took the mysteries with them. (This did not entirely purge the corruption from the Roman church. Satan still works in all the churches, (Roman and otherwise) however, the mysteries themselves headquartered themselves apart from the church at this time.) These followers survived “underground” for a while until they found an appropriate front for the mysteries. The masons were in need of support, so in exchange for keeping the order alive, they were taken over by this group of left-over Rosicrusians. Babylon (who is more than just a system, there is reason to believe she is a real spiritual entity) desires serious political as well as spiritual power though, so she needed an empire upon whose back she could ride, not just a brotherhood. This group bided their time looking for a place to establish an empire and in due time, it showed its face. America as a republic, contrary to popular belief, was not created as a political entity by Christians, but by a group of Illumined Masons. One only need to read the correspondence of these people to see that Christianity was nothing more than a window dressing for the vast majority of them. They were deists at best, not Bible believing Christians.

Babylon found her home here in America. I could take the time to go through all of the information and evidence that infers this, but much is already available on this both in books and online. One need only do a little research to find it. If anyone doubts this, you need only go to the documentary film on the Bohemian Grove ritual on youtube and watch as the highest politicians in our land (and probably many other lands) sacrifice to the owl god Molech, a mystery Babylon god. The sacrifice is supposed to be an effigy, but when I watched the tape, I found it disturbing that when the sacrifice is set on fire, and everyone is cheering, you also hear in the background someone screaming as if being tortured. Our country’s capitol building was actually built as a temple to the goddess. Anyone who knows anything about occultic symbolism can see that Washington, D.C. is an in your face statement of occultism. The fact that we have been for a while the reigning nation on earth, that the visible world government (as opposed to the invisible one) resides in NYC, that we have far more wealth and live in luxury as compared to other countries, that the world gets rich off of us as we buy their wares, that we have taken our sinful ways and disseminated them to other countries changing their cultures forever to resemble our own, and that we police and strong arm the rest of the world is a testament to the fact that Babylon must live here. Wherever she has gone in history, this is how she has acted and how the empire she has ridden upon has behaved. The only thing we haven’t done is persecute the Jews to the same extent as the previous beasts that she has ridden. That is, we haven’t done that yet. I have a horrible feeling that it is just down the road. This time it will not be just Jews though, it will also be Christians. She is guilty of the blood of the martyrs and saints. She will not stop now.

So let us see what the next chapter has to tell us about Babylon.


Chapter 17

Verse 1-2 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

One of the previous seven angels who has poured out one of the vials now comes over to talk to John. He is going to show John the judgment of Babylon. We now start getting definitive characteristics of Babylon to help identify who she is. First she sits on many waters. If we were to take this literally, this is a place that is surrounded by a variety of different bodies of water. While there is a plan afoot to rebuild Babylon in Iraq, and even Scripture has a verse that might indicate that Babylon returns home at the end, Iraq is not exactly surrounded by water. We have seen historically where Babylon has moved her headquarters, and at the moment, I think it is safe to say that she lives in America. America is surrounded by all types of bodies of water from two oceans, a gulf, a handful of Great Lakes, to some rather large rivers. So, if that were the way this was to be taken, America would certainly fit the bill. However, in verse 15 we read the following: “And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Those who believe that the Whore is the Catholic church, see this as confirmation of that, as the Catholic church can be found in every country, but then, so can most Protestant churches. I believe the Whore, while a religious entity, needs more than a religious organization. While the Catholic church is a political entity of sorts, the Whore has always sat on a beast which is an empire that is the most powerful nation on the earth. What is needed is a nation where peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues can be found. Iraq as of now would not qualify in this description. Even if the world political headquarters were moved there, her people would not be of every people, multitude, nation and tongue. Only the political representatives of these nations who are ambassadors would fill that qualification. Where on earth do you find such a mix of nationalities and tongues, as a people, as in America? America is the world’s melting pot. America is the modern day Tower of Babel. We have reached the heavens and we have people who speak practically every language on earth living here.

The kings of the earth commit fornication with this entity. The inhabitants of the earth are drunk with the wine of her fornication. We have corrupted every other nation on the face of the planet with our filth. We export it everywhere. I realize it is not as if many of these other nations are squeaky clean, they most definitely are not, but they do not export it in the same way we do. We are masters at decadence and we have made everyone else lust after the decadence that we enjoy. No matter how much people in other countries say they hate us, they still would all give up much to live here in the lap of luxury. It is called the green-eyed monster combined with sour grapes. It is simply human nature. Who wants to be poor and do without? Nobody. Who wants the freedom to say what they want to say and do what they want to do (within reason)? Everybody. Need I say more? At this point in time, unless something major were to happen to create this international city in Babylon, Iraq, and things change drastically overnight, I think it is safe to say that this description does not apply to anyone except America at this time. It gets confusing in that much of the time, Babylon and the beast she rides are thought of as a single entity, therefore many think that whoever is Babylon is also the empire of the beast. That does not necessarily have to be so. Babylon could be America, while the beast's empire could be the revived Babylonian empire. We certainly are involved with Iraq (and its neighboring nations) at the moment, and could be said to be riding on or using it to help bring on the New World Order. We are allowing our government to take away our freedoms and bring us into the NWO without a murmur, because of the threat of terrorism. Is there more to the story of our involvement over there than what we are being told?

Verse 3 “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

John is carried away (in the spirit which implies this is a vision or as many say today, an out of body experience) to the wilderness. This is an interesting description, as America was once a vast wilderness. Iraq is also of course a desert country, so one cannot rule out Iraq as a possibility for Babylon based on this character trait.

John now sees Babylon. She is a woman. As mentioned above, Babylon may be more than a system. She may be a female spiritual entity. She sits on a beast which is red in color. Is the red from blood? Is the red significant in some other way? Oddly scarlet seems to be the color whores like to use. i.e. The red light district. Bordellos are usually decorated in red. Satan is often depicted as being a red being. It is interesting that red is a color associated with evil. We call communist countries "red" also.

The beast is full of names of blasphemy and has seven heads with ten horns. We have already covered these facts earlier when discussing the beast as to what the seven heads and ten horns are, so that will not be repeated here.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Revelation 16:19-21

Verse 19 "And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."

There is no clear statement as to who the great city is, and scholars have differing opinions. We can only use Scripture as our source of information to tell us who this is. In Revelation 11:8 we are told that the dead bodies of the two witnesses will lie in the street of the "great city" and that this city is where the Lord was crucified. It seems clear that the great city is then Jerusalem. It is divided into three parts by this unparalleled earthquake that will devastate the planet. In Zech. 13:8-9 it states. "And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God." Only the "woman" was protected in the wilderness for 1260 days and now as we have seen what has transpired with the 144,000, it may be that they are the only ones who have qualified as the "woman," as it seems many Jews are still in Jerusalem. Either that, or all those who have fled have come back when the Lord returned in his glory. It is significant that the city is divided into three parts physically, and two thirds of Israel will perish and one third will be refined and purged and call upon the Lord to be their God. The symmetry cannot be coincidental. One suspects that the Temple Mount is the section that is spared to allow those there to escape. It is where the 144,000 are shown to be standing in chapter 14. In Zech. 14:2 it says that when the Lord gathers the nations to Armageddon, he leaves a group of people there to be captured (and no doubt killed). The rest are told to flee to the valley as they did in the days of the earthquake when Uzziah was king of Judah. (Zech. 14:5) This valley comes about as Christ's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and split the mountain in two. It will move north and south, creating a valley. (Zech.14:4) Interestingly, Christ's appearance on the Mount of Olives, splitting it in two, happens just before it says that He comes with the saints with him. This would seem to agree with Revelation having Christ on the Mt. Zion with the 144,000 before appearing in the sky for the rapture. He seems to be going back and forth between earth and the heavens (2nd heaven where lies New Jerusalem) over the course of the events that are passing. It seems a pattern that He makes an appearance on earth to do something for the remnant of Israel before commencing with the big show (so to speak) for the rest of the world.

Next we are told that the cities of the nations fall. This is another confirmation that the "great city" is Jerusalem. The nations (Gentile) are separated from the "great city". There is a contrast between the two. The punishment for Jerusalem, while severe, may not be as bad as the cities of the rest of the world, as Jerusalem is to be God's and Christ's headquarters. It is God's special land.

Lastly Babylon is brought into remembrance before God. It is not that He has forgotten her, He is just saving the worst for last. Whereas before she was "fallen", or in other words, had her power stripped from her and was crushed economically and spiritually, she was not completely taken off the face of the earth. She now will be. There is more to this than can first be discerned. As the next two chapters are all about Babylon, we will get into her history there. God's unmitigated wrath will be poured out on Babylon at this time. She will never exist again after this. She is portrayed as drinking a cup filled with the blood of the saints and abominations. Now she will drink from the cup of God's wrath.

Verse 20 "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found."

Now we see that the previous supposition that the mountains would be lowered (and the deep ocean valleys raised) is indeed what happens. The islands are no more as 1) the oceans have been evaporating joining land masses through bridges, and 2) many islands are the result of volcano eruptions and have simply collapsed back into the ocean with all the earthquake activity. The mountains are no more as again, the land levels out when the tectonic plates move back into place and no longer overlap, thereby leveling out rather than pushing each other up or down (high mountain ranges and low ocean trenches).

Verse 21 "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great."

One last event is the hail. This hail is the largest ever. A talent is from 108-130 pounds. This is some hail. Anything that might be left will be pummeled by this hail and destroyed. Anyone who has experienced even gumball sized hail knows how much damage that can cause. For those who have experienced larger hail such as golf balls or even somewhat larger, you know that you wouldn't want to be caught outside. Now imagine 100+ pound balls of solid ice pounding down on the world. Now we know for what the stores of ice and snow that God told Job he had stored up for the last days is going to be used.