Verse 6-8 “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.”
Babylon is about to receive her reward. What a reward! She is going to get double the trouble, torment, and sorrow that she gave others. The equivalent of the amount that she glorified herself, lived in the lap of luxury, and tormented others, she will now get back in spades. The way God repeats the word “doubled” makes me wonder if He doubles it several times over. She has proudly thought that she was above being punished for her wickedness, that she was untouchable from other’s attempts to bring her down (yes, this is definitely the attitude Americans have, but the Vatican has some arrogancy problems too), but now she will not act as a queen lording it over others, she will act as a mourning widow. She will see her own death and destruction come upon her and her children in one day. There will be plagues, famine, death, and mourning as she is completely annihilated with fire. This is the judgment that God has pronounced upon her, and it is the ten horns who will carry out this command for God, unbeknownst to them. They are the ones who will, in one day, completely burn her with fire. Again it would seem since this judgment from God is initiated by the ten and not supernatural in application that it is most likely a nuclear holocaust.
Verse 9-10 “And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”
The leaders of all of the rest of the nations will wail and lament for what comes upon Babylon when they see her destruction is complete and thorough. Given that the beast will become the object of worship for the world, and the Vatican will no longer be the religious headquarters for a large percentage of the world, it is unlikely that the kings of the earth would wail over its demise. While many of the leaders of the world talk and act as if they hate America (we will assume for the moment that America is Babylon), still everyone depends upon America to be there when they need them. It is like a child who resents a parent’s interference in their lives, but is distraught beyond words if something happens to the parent, so that the parent is no longer there to run to when things go badly for them. America is the one who shows up to fight others’ wars. America is the one who arrives when devastation hits. Who is going to come help them when the helper is gone? Where can they go for a better life, when the one place on earth where that is possible is suddenly destroyed? I do not see people lamenting over the Vatican for those reasons should this happen. Nor do I see the Catholic church suddenly ceasing to exist should the Vatican be bombed, and this is definitely the end of Babylon. The destruction that we will see Babylon suffer can not possibly describe what would transpire should they blow up Vatican City. Nor do I see the world wailing over the demise of a newly created city of Babylon in Iraq. While an interesting city no doubt, should it actually be built, it cannot possibly cause the emotional outpouring of grief that this will cause. America is everyone’s one last hope for freedom, success, riches, etc. The smoke of her burning will be seen from afar as America is so big, it will cause quite a smoke filled sky. It is not just the city that will be destroyed, it will most likely be the entire country. Babylon was never just a city, it was always a city/state or city/nation entity. People are said to be standing far off from her. That is exactly how the rest of the world stands from America, far off. Her destruction comes in the space of one hour. That is more than enough time for a number of nuclear explosions to devastate her.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Revelation 18:1-5
Chapter 18
Verse 1-2 “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
An angel first announces that Babylon has fallen. She is no longer wields the power she once did. She is nothing more than a habitation for devils, demons, foul spirits, and unclean birds. This is a repeat of the announcement in chapter 14, which we did not go into at that time, of the fall of Babylon. But is this fall from power the same thing as her total destruction? This seemed to create a problem in chapter 14 if taken as her destruction there, because her destruction comes at the end of chapter 16 when the end of God‘s wrath occurs. This would be at the end of the 1290 days (which according to Daniel is how long it takes for everything to be accomplished after the abomination of desolation) and several weeks after the rapture which occurs shortly after the 1260 days. If, however, we accept in chapter 14 that it is speaking of her fall from power, not her destruction, (the word fallen really does not imply complete destruction, as the Greek word means to fail or fall down) there is not a problem. If her fall from power precedes her destruction, there should be a confirmation of that somewhere else besides chapter 14, and indeed there may be in the following verses. Referring back to the fall of Babylon, it is unclear as to exactly what is going on in that fall. We know that the ten cohorts of the beast want her complete destruction, and we know that the beast is not going to share his power, so it would seem that before her destruction she must have been brought under a certain amount of submission to the beast. It may be that she has gone along with the beast at first, but there are a lot of militant Americans who do not want to submit to a one world government, and they might cause problems so she needs to be rendered helpless to fight back. There are Old Testament scriptures that indicate that Babylon is going to be overrun and pillaged by the Islamic nations. Jer. 51:27-29 "Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up like the rough caterpillars. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds; their might hath failed, they became like women; they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." Coincidentally(?) the kingdoms of Ararat (Turkey), Minni, and Ashkenaz (the area east of Turkey where Azerbaijan and Georgia are) along with the Medes (Iran) are part of what an Islamic league would include if our understanding of previous scriptures is correct. Note that according to this scripture Babylon is threshed (fallen,) but her time of harvest is not yet come. In other words, the harvest of saints to reward, and the harvest of sinners to wrath (the two harvests of Rev. 14) has not yet come. This event of being overrun by these nations precedes her total annihilation. With the many Muslims in this country, not to mention the Muslim compounds that exist (I must admit to being suspicious of an Islamic compound that is much too close to our home for comfort - one wonders why the government does not investigate), it is not a stretch to think that when the Mahdi makes his claim to godhood and calls for his followers to "kill the infidels", that even the most pacifistic Muslim will take up his sword and behead anyone who will not submit to the Mahdi, their messiah.
Verse 3 “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
Again we see that drunkenness is associated with Babylon. This is a repetition of a previous description whereby everyone is drunk because of her fornications. This also states that the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of luxuries that she bestows upon herself. She buys and buys to lavish upon herself. This can describe no one other than America. We are known all over the world for this sin. Other countries sell us all kinds of material garbage for us to consume, and consume we do.
Verse 4-5 “And I heard another voice from heaven , saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
Here is a very pertinent verse for Christians. In a previous verse, it was stated that Babylon had fallen, but it was not stated that she had been destroyed. It was surmised that that there should be a confirmation of this idea, if it is indeed so. It would appear that the confirmation is found here. God’s people are told to come out of Babylon, so that they will not receive the plagues that He is about to perpetrate upon her. While many think that this means that Christians should leave America, and this may be true (although I think this applies in that context to religious Jews rather than Christians as the instruction as to where they are to flee is found in verse 50 "Ye who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.") given a scripture in Jer. 51: 44-45 "And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up, and the nations shall not flow together anymore unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. My people, go out of the midst of her, and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord," a look back to chapters 14-16 makes one wonder if this is not God calling the remnant that remains out of the earth in the rapture before His wrath descends and Babylon is destroyed. (Note in the verse the nations flow together (merge) to Babylon. this would again present an argument for America being Babylon.) This chapter is in essence a history of Babylon. In the course of that history, at some point the rapture would have occurred. If God were to refer to it, it would give us a focal point in time by which we can line up the chronology of Babylon’s history with the rest of the chronology in Revelation. We have seen before that when God takes a break in the chronology or timeline of the book of Revelation to fill in other histories, He gives us focal points or events in the new history to help us overlay it onto the previous chronology that we have, so that we have an overview of everything that is happening in its correct place. We saw this done with chapters 11-13. In chapter 14 we had the announcement that Babylon had fallen, then there was the rapture and the pouring out of the seven vials of God‘s wrath, and then Babylon got her comeuppance. If we take these verses in the same context and chronology, we have Babylon falling, God’s people being told to come out of her (the rapture), and now we should see her destruction, if it is indeed the same chronology as chapter 14. Just as expected it states that her sins have reached as high as heaven, and God is now remembering her to judge her. This is also what it said at the end of chapter 16 at the last vial judgment, that God remembers Babylon and gives her the full cup of His wrath. The use of the similar verbal phrases in the two accounts (remembrance before God, cup filled, plagues) are deliberate to link the two as the same event. Her destruction by plagues and filling her cup with God's wrath is what we should see next here, if this is a correct understanding of the order of events, and we do.
Verse 1-2 “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
An angel first announces that Babylon has fallen. She is no longer wields the power she once did. She is nothing more than a habitation for devils, demons, foul spirits, and unclean birds. This is a repeat of the announcement in chapter 14, which we did not go into at that time, of the fall of Babylon. But is this fall from power the same thing as her total destruction? This seemed to create a problem in chapter 14 if taken as her destruction there, because her destruction comes at the end of chapter 16 when the end of God‘s wrath occurs. This would be at the end of the 1290 days (which according to Daniel is how long it takes for everything to be accomplished after the abomination of desolation) and several weeks after the rapture which occurs shortly after the 1260 days. If, however, we accept in chapter 14 that it is speaking of her fall from power, not her destruction, (the word fallen really does not imply complete destruction, as the Greek word means to fail or fall down) there is not a problem. If her fall from power precedes her destruction, there should be a confirmation of that somewhere else besides chapter 14, and indeed there may be in the following verses. Referring back to the fall of Babylon, it is unclear as to exactly what is going on in that fall. We know that the ten cohorts of the beast want her complete destruction, and we know that the beast is not going to share his power, so it would seem that before her destruction she must have been brought under a certain amount of submission to the beast. It may be that she has gone along with the beast at first, but there are a lot of militant Americans who do not want to submit to a one world government, and they might cause problems so she needs to be rendered helpless to fight back. There are Old Testament scriptures that indicate that Babylon is going to be overrun and pillaged by the Islamic nations. Jer. 51:27-29 "Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up like the rough caterpillars. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds; their might hath failed, they became like women; they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." Coincidentally(?) the kingdoms of Ararat (Turkey), Minni, and Ashkenaz (the area east of Turkey where Azerbaijan and Georgia are) along with the Medes (Iran) are part of what an Islamic league would include if our understanding of previous scriptures is correct. Note that according to this scripture Babylon is threshed (fallen,) but her time of harvest is not yet come. In other words, the harvest of saints to reward, and the harvest of sinners to wrath (the two harvests of Rev. 14) has not yet come. This event of being overrun by these nations precedes her total annihilation. With the many Muslims in this country, not to mention the Muslim compounds that exist (I must admit to being suspicious of an Islamic compound that is much too close to our home for comfort - one wonders why the government does not investigate), it is not a stretch to think that when the Mahdi makes his claim to godhood and calls for his followers to "kill the infidels", that even the most pacifistic Muslim will take up his sword and behead anyone who will not submit to the Mahdi, their messiah.
Verse 3 “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
Again we see that drunkenness is associated with Babylon. This is a repetition of a previous description whereby everyone is drunk because of her fornications. This also states that the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of luxuries that she bestows upon herself. She buys and buys to lavish upon herself. This can describe no one other than America. We are known all over the world for this sin. Other countries sell us all kinds of material garbage for us to consume, and consume we do.
Verse 4-5 “And I heard another voice from heaven , saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
Here is a very pertinent verse for Christians. In a previous verse, it was stated that Babylon had fallen, but it was not stated that she had been destroyed. It was surmised that that there should be a confirmation of this idea, if it is indeed so. It would appear that the confirmation is found here. God’s people are told to come out of Babylon, so that they will not receive the plagues that He is about to perpetrate upon her. While many think that this means that Christians should leave America, and this may be true (although I think this applies in that context to religious Jews rather than Christians as the instruction as to where they are to flee is found in verse 50 "Ye who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.") given a scripture in Jer. 51: 44-45 "And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up, and the nations shall not flow together anymore unto him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. My people, go out of the midst of her, and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord," a look back to chapters 14-16 makes one wonder if this is not God calling the remnant that remains out of the earth in the rapture before His wrath descends and Babylon is destroyed. (Note in the verse the nations flow together (merge) to Babylon. this would again present an argument for America being Babylon.) This chapter is in essence a history of Babylon. In the course of that history, at some point the rapture would have occurred. If God were to refer to it, it would give us a focal point in time by which we can line up the chronology of Babylon’s history with the rest of the chronology in Revelation. We have seen before that when God takes a break in the chronology or timeline of the book of Revelation to fill in other histories, He gives us focal points or events in the new history to help us overlay it onto the previous chronology that we have, so that we have an overview of everything that is happening in its correct place. We saw this done with chapters 11-13. In chapter 14 we had the announcement that Babylon had fallen, then there was the rapture and the pouring out of the seven vials of God‘s wrath, and then Babylon got her comeuppance. If we take these verses in the same context and chronology, we have Babylon falling, God’s people being told to come out of her (the rapture), and now we should see her destruction, if it is indeed the same chronology as chapter 14. Just as expected it states that her sins have reached as high as heaven, and God is now remembering her to judge her. This is also what it said at the end of chapter 16 at the last vial judgment, that God remembers Babylon and gives her the full cup of His wrath. The use of the similar verbal phrases in the two accounts (remembrance before God, cup filled, plagues) are deliberate to link the two as the same event. Her destruction by plagues and filling her cup with God's wrath is what we should see next here, if this is a correct understanding of the order of events, and we do.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Revelation 17:13-18
Verse 13-14 “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”
Now it can be seen how the beast comes to power. These ten hand their power over to him. When discussing the possibility of this ten person league being a Muslim federation, and the beast being the Mahdi, it is easy to see why if this is the scenario they would hand their power over to him without hesitation. The fact that in Daniel we are told that three of them are subdued by him could result from the fact that later on he proclaims himself God. The Muslims do not believe that Allah can be incarnated in a man. Therefore they would not accept his claim to godhood, while they would accept him as the messiah or anointed one. It is possible that the necessity to subdue (probably kill) these three comes when they object to the elevation to godhood (regardless of whether it is a Muslim Mahdi or not). The other seven probably fall in line to save their own lives (again regardless of whether it is a Muslim league or not). It would not be the first time that this sort of behavior has happened. Not all of Hitler's henchman really believed in him, but they did as they were told to save their own skins. I am guessing the same can be said of the group that surrounded Saddam Hussein.
When the ten give their power and strength (read that as armies) over to the beast they expect that by doing so the beast will be able to overcome the Christian God. They are wrong. Christ is not only the Lamb, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and cannot be defeated. He will be the winner, and those that are His followers will overcome, even in death. Note that God does not just call His servants followers. He gives a very specific order as to how they became His followers. They were called, then chosen, and remained faithful. This goes along with what has been taught so far in this Bible study. God calls people first, then based upon their response to that call, He chooses them. Then God can predestine their lives to His will (but it must be realized that God knew everything from the foundation of the world, so He knew in advance their choice and therefore elected or chose them and predestined them from the beginning), and they have the obligation to remain faithful to the end in order to actually qualify as followers of Christ. That is how election and predestination works. Many people misunderstand this. It is as if someone asked a crowd, "Who wants to have a free trip to Hawaii?" Some people will raise their hands, but some may actually not want to take a free trip to Hawaii, so don't raise their hands. Now, even though they raised their hands, they can't just grab the free trip to Hawaii. They still can do nothing to get it except wait to be chosen or for that person's approval to go. But if the person giving out the free trips is generous, he will take everyone who wants to go. Now if he was omniscient, he would know in advance who would raise their hands, so planned on taking that many people with him. So many are called, but you have to be chosen, but it is a choice based on our response, and oddly enough, when it comes to God, the majority don't want to raise their hands, so they aren't chosen.
Verse 15 “And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
This was covered at the beginning of the chapter.
Verse 16 “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”
As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, it is often assumed that the beast and the whore are part and parcel of the same entity, but this indicates that there is animosity between at least the ten people who have propelled the beast into power and the whore, if not between the whore and the beast himself. The whore has ridden the beast all this time. A rider uses a beast to get them where they want to go. A rider controls the beast to a certain degree as long as the beast allows itself to be controlled. The beast that is ridden is always subservient to the rider. It would appear that after all these millennia of being ridden, the beast may be rebelling. At the very least, his counsel of ten are rebelling against her and her control over their leader. There is a schism between the two that is going to cost the whore her very life. To date, the whore has been the goddess of the Babylonian mysteries, the Queen of Heaven who has claimed the worship of her followers. Now the beast wants to be worshiped as god and there is no room for sharing. Babylon is competition and she must go. As a result the ten see to it that she is destroyed. They will burn her with fire, which will eat her flesh and make her desolate and naked. Common sense says that given that this destruction comes from the ten and not directly from God, and given our technology, this is most likely a nuclear attack. When this occurs Babylon will cease to exist for the rest of time, as God wants it to be permanent. As we will see she will become a haunt for demons and unclean animals and never be inhabited again. We will explore more of what the possible reasons for the animosity between Babylon and the beast are later.
Verse 17 “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”
The ten horns destroy the whore because God is using them to do His will, which is to destroy her for Him. They believe they are doing this so that her kingdom can be handed over to the beast. This would not only give the beast political power, but would force everyone to give up her religion (Remember that all Jews and Christians have either been killed or are being protected by God, so that only leaves either Babylonian religious followers [take your pick of religions] or atheists.) and adhere to the worship of the beast as the only religion. No matter what the powers on earth think they are doing for themselves, ultimately they are still doing God’s will. Again while there is no proof that the beast is the Muslim Mahdi, it would make the most sense of the scenario of why they want her destroyed. If she joins the New World Order and is in league with them, why would they need to destroy her? It would seem that in declaring himself God, the beast is not only wanting to usurp God, he wants to replace Babylon as the being to be worshiped. Satan was fine with using her as a tool for all this time to get people away from God, but now he wants his “son“ to be the god of this world, just as Christ is God‘s Son. Satan feels the need to imitate everything about God. He wants so badly to be God. If one were to speak to a psychiatrist, I am guessing that when a person is not mentally sound and they believe they are someone else, they feel the need to imitate the things that the person they believe they are has done or would do. Thus the death and “resurrection” of the beast, the claiming of the temple in Jerusalem as his throne, etc. Babylon worked for Satan all these millennia as the queen of heaven, as it appears possible that she is a powerful spiritual entity to whom others in the fallen spiritual realm must answer. However now that he has the whole world under his control, he no longer wants her as middle man. He wants people to worship him more directly. All of the Babylonian religions tend to be polytheistic as lesser spiritual entities posed as gods within her religion given that she is not an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being. She needed the hierarchy to keep track of things within her religion. Now Satan does not want to share the worship with a multitude of other “gods.” The only three monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first two worship the true God. It would therefore seem likely that the scenario of Islam being the religion of the beast as a convenient vehicle for Satan to get everyone worshiping him alone is a plausible scenario. Therefore the fall and destruction of Babylon are a necessity. Since America seems to be her residence and through whom she wields her power, it is likely that it is America will be destroyed by this league of ten on behalf of the beast. At this time (although that could easily change), America is the most powerful nation, which would make us the only ones who would have the power to oppose him. This is another reason for believing America is where Babylon resides rather than a confederation of Arabic nations with Iraq at the helm.
Verse 18 “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Now we have another definitive identifying factor for Babylon. She controls the city which controls all of the rest of the world’s leaders. Here we come down to the question of, are we talking spiritual control, political control, or financial control. If speaking of spiritual control, (using a spiritual position to influence politics) again a case could be made for the Vatican, as we have all seen political leaders bow and kiss the Pope‘s ring, as if they owe him obeisance. However, there is a United Religions organization that exists which is uniting the religions of the world and is the spiritual equivalent to the New World Order. This must be considered when speaking of spiritual control. The United Religions movement is headquartered in the U.S. This would place the spiritual control of Babylon in this country. If we are talking strictly political control, the visible center of political control is the United Nations in NYC (however many of the leaders of these countries answer to the Illuminati, as they are members of the Freemasons or other organizations which are controlled by the Illuminati.) If speaking of financial control, we are speaking of the power brokers of the world who control the banking conglomerates (otherwise known as the top level Illuminati). Is there a particular city that would answer this last entity? Possibly still NYC as that is where Wall Street resides, although many of the people who own these world banks live in Europe (They don’t want to get nuked when Babylon catches it.) It would seem that the place where these three things cross, even if others qualify in some respects (but not all) is again America. It does seem that America is the top candidate for Babylon.
Now it can be seen how the beast comes to power. These ten hand their power over to him. When discussing the possibility of this ten person league being a Muslim federation, and the beast being the Mahdi, it is easy to see why if this is the scenario they would hand their power over to him without hesitation. The fact that in Daniel we are told that three of them are subdued by him could result from the fact that later on he proclaims himself God. The Muslims do not believe that Allah can be incarnated in a man. Therefore they would not accept his claim to godhood, while they would accept him as the messiah or anointed one. It is possible that the necessity to subdue (probably kill) these three comes when they object to the elevation to godhood (regardless of whether it is a Muslim Mahdi or not). The other seven probably fall in line to save their own lives (again regardless of whether it is a Muslim league or not). It would not be the first time that this sort of behavior has happened. Not all of Hitler's henchman really believed in him, but they did as they were told to save their own skins. I am guessing the same can be said of the group that surrounded Saddam Hussein.
When the ten give their power and strength (read that as armies) over to the beast they expect that by doing so the beast will be able to overcome the Christian God. They are wrong. Christ is not only the Lamb, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and cannot be defeated. He will be the winner, and those that are His followers will overcome, even in death. Note that God does not just call His servants followers. He gives a very specific order as to how they became His followers. They were called, then chosen, and remained faithful. This goes along with what has been taught so far in this Bible study. God calls people first, then based upon their response to that call, He chooses them. Then God can predestine their lives to His will (but it must be realized that God knew everything from the foundation of the world, so He knew in advance their choice and therefore elected or chose them and predestined them from the beginning), and they have the obligation to remain faithful to the end in order to actually qualify as followers of Christ. That is how election and predestination works. Many people misunderstand this. It is as if someone asked a crowd, "Who wants to have a free trip to Hawaii?" Some people will raise their hands, but some may actually not want to take a free trip to Hawaii, so don't raise their hands. Now, even though they raised their hands, they can't just grab the free trip to Hawaii. They still can do nothing to get it except wait to be chosen or for that person's approval to go. But if the person giving out the free trips is generous, he will take everyone who wants to go. Now if he was omniscient, he would know in advance who would raise their hands, so planned on taking that many people with him. So many are called, but you have to be chosen, but it is a choice based on our response, and oddly enough, when it comes to God, the majority don't want to raise their hands, so they aren't chosen.
Verse 15 “And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
This was covered at the beginning of the chapter.
Verse 16 “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”
As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, it is often assumed that the beast and the whore are part and parcel of the same entity, but this indicates that there is animosity between at least the ten people who have propelled the beast into power and the whore, if not between the whore and the beast himself. The whore has ridden the beast all this time. A rider uses a beast to get them where they want to go. A rider controls the beast to a certain degree as long as the beast allows itself to be controlled. The beast that is ridden is always subservient to the rider. It would appear that after all these millennia of being ridden, the beast may be rebelling. At the very least, his counsel of ten are rebelling against her and her control over their leader. There is a schism between the two that is going to cost the whore her very life. To date, the whore has been the goddess of the Babylonian mysteries, the Queen of Heaven who has claimed the worship of her followers. Now the beast wants to be worshiped as god and there is no room for sharing. Babylon is competition and she must go. As a result the ten see to it that she is destroyed. They will burn her with fire, which will eat her flesh and make her desolate and naked. Common sense says that given that this destruction comes from the ten and not directly from God, and given our technology, this is most likely a nuclear attack. When this occurs Babylon will cease to exist for the rest of time, as God wants it to be permanent. As we will see she will become a haunt for demons and unclean animals and never be inhabited again. We will explore more of what the possible reasons for the animosity between Babylon and the beast are later.
Verse 17 “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”
The ten horns destroy the whore because God is using them to do His will, which is to destroy her for Him. They believe they are doing this so that her kingdom can be handed over to the beast. This would not only give the beast political power, but would force everyone to give up her religion (Remember that all Jews and Christians have either been killed or are being protected by God, so that only leaves either Babylonian religious followers [take your pick of religions] or atheists.) and adhere to the worship of the beast as the only religion. No matter what the powers on earth think they are doing for themselves, ultimately they are still doing God’s will. Again while there is no proof that the beast is the Muslim Mahdi, it would make the most sense of the scenario of why they want her destroyed. If she joins the New World Order and is in league with them, why would they need to destroy her? It would seem that in declaring himself God, the beast is not only wanting to usurp God, he wants to replace Babylon as the being to be worshiped. Satan was fine with using her as a tool for all this time to get people away from God, but now he wants his “son“ to be the god of this world, just as Christ is God‘s Son. Satan feels the need to imitate everything about God. He wants so badly to be God. If one were to speak to a psychiatrist, I am guessing that when a person is not mentally sound and they believe they are someone else, they feel the need to imitate the things that the person they believe they are has done or would do. Thus the death and “resurrection” of the beast, the claiming of the temple in Jerusalem as his throne, etc. Babylon worked for Satan all these millennia as the queen of heaven, as it appears possible that she is a powerful spiritual entity to whom others in the fallen spiritual realm must answer. However now that he has the whole world under his control, he no longer wants her as middle man. He wants people to worship him more directly. All of the Babylonian religions tend to be polytheistic as lesser spiritual entities posed as gods within her religion given that she is not an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being. She needed the hierarchy to keep track of things within her religion. Now Satan does not want to share the worship with a multitude of other “gods.” The only three monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first two worship the true God. It would therefore seem likely that the scenario of Islam being the religion of the beast as a convenient vehicle for Satan to get everyone worshiping him alone is a plausible scenario. Therefore the fall and destruction of Babylon are a necessity. Since America seems to be her residence and through whom she wields her power, it is likely that it is America will be destroyed by this league of ten on behalf of the beast. At this time (although that could easily change), America is the most powerful nation, which would make us the only ones who would have the power to oppose him. This is another reason for believing America is where Babylon resides rather than a confederation of Arabic nations with Iraq at the helm.
Verse 18 “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Now we have another definitive identifying factor for Babylon. She controls the city which controls all of the rest of the world’s leaders. Here we come down to the question of, are we talking spiritual control, political control, or financial control. If speaking of spiritual control, (using a spiritual position to influence politics) again a case could be made for the Vatican, as we have all seen political leaders bow and kiss the Pope‘s ring, as if they owe him obeisance. However, there is a United Religions organization that exists which is uniting the religions of the world and is the spiritual equivalent to the New World Order. This must be considered when speaking of spiritual control. The United Religions movement is headquartered in the U.S. This would place the spiritual control of Babylon in this country. If we are talking strictly political control, the visible center of political control is the United Nations in NYC (however many of the leaders of these countries answer to the Illuminati, as they are members of the Freemasons or other organizations which are controlled by the Illuminati.) If speaking of financial control, we are speaking of the power brokers of the world who control the banking conglomerates (otherwise known as the top level Illuminati). Is there a particular city that would answer this last entity? Possibly still NYC as that is where Wall Street resides, although many of the people who own these world banks live in Europe (They don’t want to get nuked when Babylon catches it.) It would seem that the place where these three things cross, even if others qualify in some respects (but not all) is again America. It does seem that America is the top candidate for Babylon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Revelation 16:17-18
Verse 17 "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done."
This angel pours out his vial into the air. Knowing that Armageddon follows this, and that we have discussed that the way people die it sounds as if it is truly a biological or chemical weapon or plague, it is of interest that the vial is poured into the air, as that is how these weapons are disseminated.
On the cross Christ said, "It is finished." The part that was finished was the sacrifice to become our kinsman redeemer and to defeat Satan and death. Now a voice from the temple (which is filled with God's smoke) pronounces the end of the entire plan of salvation and the restoration of things to the way they are supposed to be. This would appear to be God, not Christ. The end of it all comes with the vial that the seventh angel pours out.
Verse 18 "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great."
Now we see that the last judgment is an earthquake that is so great that there has never been the like since the beginning of time. This was mentioned before when discussing the passage in Zechariah. This earthquake will affect the entire earth, not just Jerusalem or Israel. Even though it does not say this, a quake of this magnitude simply would do that. This will shake the foundations of the earth and complete whatever has to be done to bring the world back to its antediluvian state. Possibly this will make the continents make the final move back into a pangaea. The vast oceans will be smaller due to evaporation from the intense heat, and the land (through all of the upheaval it has gone through) will need to be rid of the excessively high mountains and low ocean beds that are left from the evaporation of the waters. It will all need to be livable, as the millennium will not see people dying, except for those who refuse to live by the laws and are punished. The world will repopulate and fill quickly with everyone living hundreds of years. The tectonic plates will now need to settle back into their original places and a massive earthquake is just the thing to do that. This would also seem to be a necessity if all the nations are to go to Jerusalem once a year. The land will need to all be connected, as with all technology gone from the massive devastation on earth, there will be no planes, ships, trains, or cars to transport people for quite some time. They will have to walk or ride animals to get there, at least until man can recover from the devastation and start to rebuild. However, there is no indication of how much technology God will allow, and while boats will obviously be allowed for fishing, cars, trains, and planes might not be in God's plan, so walking and riding animals might be the only transportation, period.
This angel pours out his vial into the air. Knowing that Armageddon follows this, and that we have discussed that the way people die it sounds as if it is truly a biological or chemical weapon or plague, it is of interest that the vial is poured into the air, as that is how these weapons are disseminated.
On the cross Christ said, "It is finished." The part that was finished was the sacrifice to become our kinsman redeemer and to defeat Satan and death. Now a voice from the temple (which is filled with God's smoke) pronounces the end of the entire plan of salvation and the restoration of things to the way they are supposed to be. This would appear to be God, not Christ. The end of it all comes with the vial that the seventh angel pours out.
Verse 18 "And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great."
Now we see that the last judgment is an earthquake that is so great that there has never been the like since the beginning of time. This was mentioned before when discussing the passage in Zechariah. This earthquake will affect the entire earth, not just Jerusalem or Israel. Even though it does not say this, a quake of this magnitude simply would do that. This will shake the foundations of the earth and complete whatever has to be done to bring the world back to its antediluvian state. Possibly this will make the continents make the final move back into a pangaea. The vast oceans will be smaller due to evaporation from the intense heat, and the land (through all of the upheaval it has gone through) will need to be rid of the excessively high mountains and low ocean beds that are left from the evaporation of the waters. It will all need to be livable, as the millennium will not see people dying, except for those who refuse to live by the laws and are punished. The world will repopulate and fill quickly with everyone living hundreds of years. The tectonic plates will now need to settle back into their original places and a massive earthquake is just the thing to do that. This would also seem to be a necessity if all the nations are to go to Jerusalem once a year. The land will need to all be connected, as with all technology gone from the massive devastation on earth, there will be no planes, ships, trains, or cars to transport people for quite some time. They will have to walk or ride animals to get there, at least until man can recover from the devastation and start to rebuild. However, there is no indication of how much technology God will allow, and while boats will obviously be allowed for fishing, cars, trains, and planes might not be in God's plan, so walking and riding animals might be the only transportation, period.
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