In this episode Dr. Paula takes us through the study of Chapter 17 in the Book of Revelation.
Transcript
Welcome to Exhale Bible Discovery.
Speaker:Each week we'll take a deep dive into the Bible, going line by line and chapter by chapter to discover the truth that God has for us in His Word.
Speaker:Well, hello everyone.
Speaker:This is Dr.
Speaker:Paula McDonald and we are at Revelation, chapter 17.
Speaker:And now that we've come through the seven bold judgments, we now come to an important chapter regarding the identity of Babylon.
Speaker:This entire chapter explores this topic and we will be diving in to be able to identify the doctrines and systems that this chapter is referring to.
Speaker:We were warned to stay awake and this chapter continues to show us why this is essential that believers understand whom they follow.
Speaker:As God takes his word back, he continues to reveal the corruption that has eroded his glorious kingdom.
Speaker:And so I have this chapter in two divisions.
Speaker:The first division is Babylon defined, and that's 17, one through six.
Speaker:And then Babylon exposed seven through 18.
Speaker:So we're going to jump right in with verse one.
Speaker:One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who sits by many waters.
Speaker:While the literal city of Babylon was located on the Euphrates River, this city was the seat of civilization that expressed organized hostility to God.
Speaker:In the Old Testament, the name Babylon is associated with organized idolatry, blasphemy, and the persecution of God's people.
Speaker:Babylon is mentioned 287 times in the scriptures, more than any other city except for Jerusalem.
Speaker:Well, John identifies one of the angels who was part of the old judgments that came to him and invited him to hear the message regarding a great prostitute who sits by many waters who will be punished.
Speaker:And this chapter weaves us through a vivid description of this prostitute or harlot and then identifies her at the end of the chapter.
Speaker:Biblically, a prostitute or a harlot is a picture and description of sin.
Speaker:Many theologians believe this description clearly defines the fallen away church.
Speaker:So imagine God's disdain of the most adulterers of all behaviors and that is taking his word, his doctrines and his laws and twisting them and turning them into something that they are not the mocking of his people and the disdain of his creation.
Speaker:While Babylon was present in John's day in the form of Rome and in our day and throughout history as what we call a world system, the corrupt world system today we refer to as the cabal under the Antichrist.
Speaker:Babylon, which is in both religious and commercial aspects, has great influence over the earth.
Speaker:It's evident in our world today.
Speaker:So basically the world has an evil influence over it.
Speaker:The reference to the prostitutes sitting by many waters simply points to the corruption at the highest levels over many nations, doctrines and systems.
Speaker:And we're going to see more about this as we go through the chapter.
Speaker:And verse two with her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.
Speaker:And again, remember we've talked about this before.
Speaker:This is not a degradation to women.
Speaker:This is a metaphor used to describe the corruption.
Speaker:So it's easy to see where verse two is going, talking about the kings or leaders of corrupt government, cities, states and nations that have fallen into the hands of Satan along with the people.
Speaker:Well, being intoxicated with the lure of money, status, luxury, selfserving pleasures and the absence of God and his laws is very evident today.
Speaker:When one commits adultery, they are going against a vow.
Speaker:And in this case those who commit sin are going against God himself and his vows by dismissing his word and his laws.
Speaker:When people blindly follow anything that goes against God, well, they convince themselves that what they're doing is right and they become so blind that they are intoxicated with their own desires and their own agenda.
Speaker:Verse three then the angel carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness.
Speaker:And there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.
Speaker:We've seen this before as we've studied this book.
Speaker:And John here is making another reference to being carried away in the Spirit, and this time into a wilderness.
Speaker:And there are actually four times here in Revelation that John is carried away in the Spirit.
Speaker:In Revelation 110, John tells us he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, demonstrating that he was in deep prayer.
Speaker:Then in Revelation four two, John is invited to go up and get a close up and personal view of heaven.
Speaker:And then now here in this verse, he has taken away to a wilderness.
Speaker:And remember back in chapter twelve where the woman was given the two wings to be able to fly away to a place prepared for her in the wilderness.
Speaker:And we also know Jesus escaped to a wilderness many times in Mark 135 and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.
Speaker:And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place.
Speaker:Luke 442 now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.
Speaker:Matthew 1314 and after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
Speaker:Matthew 1423 and then in John 615 perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
Speaker:So sometimes it is important to escape to a place where we can have uninterrupted time with God in order to see and hear Him clearly.
Speaker:And in this case, John is now getting a clear vision of the sinful world that is desperate for God.
Speaker:The second part of this verse describes a woman who represents the corrupt leaders and systems, governments and religions that are sitting on a scarlet beast covered in blasphemous names with seven heads and ten horns.
Speaker:And it's representative of the same beast that was previously seen in Revelation 13 one, which was the Antichrist in his dictatorship.
Speaker:Her position of writing or sitting atop the beast shows domination and control.
Speaker:On the outside, these systems look alluring and attractive, but are actually abominations to God himself and are serving Satan's purposes of deceit.
Speaker:Verse four.
Speaker:The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls.
Speaker:She held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.
Speaker:Now we receive a symbolic description of this harlot or prostitution of corruption and she or the system is dressed up as royalty in purple and scarlet along with the regalia of precious stones and pearls.
Speaker:And these colors have always pointed to positions of high honor.
Speaker:And here once again, this is a mocking of the true king Jesus Christ.
Speaker:In her hands she holds a golden cup filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.
Speaker:And basically she can look the part.
Speaker:But on closer inspection what she holds represents are in opposition to God and his word.
Speaker:And this reminds me of the saying lipstick on a pig.
Speaker:You can dress that pig up, but it is still a pig.
Speaker:Verse five.
Speaker:The name written on her forehead was a mystery babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the abominations of the earth.
Speaker:Now the name on her forehead points to the false and corrupt kingdoms.
Speaker:And mainly scholars believe here that this is clearly pointing to the prostate or false church during the end times.
Speaker:A church or world religious system that has become well, something for everyone.
Speaker:A church or religious system that leads people away from God, the God of the Bible and from his son Jesus.
Speaker:And they point them toward a watered down tolerant system that erases sin and diminishes God's.
Speaker:True word.
Speaker:Verse six.
Speaker:I saw the woman was drunk with the blood of God's holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.
Speaker:When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.
Speaker:Well, this verse truly exposes the harlot as the one who not only lures people away from Christ, but she revels in it.
Speaker:She loves it so much that she is intoxicated with her own power and seduction.
Speaker:Those who follow Satan greatly desire the blood of God's holy people and those who bear testimony to Jesus.
Speaker:And this includes not only the martyrdom of believers, but also the Satanic desire for the actual blood of innocent children.
Speaker:And as horrible as that is, it is happening in our world right now under our noses.
Speaker:In the next breath, John tells us that he is greatly astonished well, he is now not only seeing how corrupt the government and the leaders are, but he's seeing the reality of the ugliness of Christianity being prostituted, of his beloved Church being poisoned.
Speaker:And he's already witnessed in his own day the vicious persecution of Christ's followers and of his beloved Christ being killed on the cross.
Speaker:But now he is seeing the full force, the horrible and vicious desecration of all things Jesus.
Speaker:So you can imagine how astonished he was in seeing this being played out.
Speaker:So the truth bomb for this section is our world is steeped in Satanic corruption, intoxicated with power and position and with religion having become completely filthy.
Speaker:And of course, this is not all areas, but you guys, you know, it's a majority.
Speaker:A lot of it has really become watered down.
Speaker:So your call to action are there areas of the world allure that has captivated your devotion, your time and your money? Go to God today and ask him to expose any corruption in your heart that you need to purge from your life.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Second part.
Speaker:Babylon is exposed.
Speaker:Revelation 17 718, verse seven.
Speaker:Then the angel said to me, why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and the beast she rides, which has seven heads and ten horns.
Speaker:Well, the angel questions John why he's astonished, and he is told that this corrupt system has been led by Satan and has ruled for a very long time.
Speaker:The beast has actually taken what started out to be God's true church of Christian believers and slowly and methodically polluted it with false doctrines and many times a complete mocking of Christ himself.
Speaker:In verse eight, the beast which you once saw is now not, and yet will come up out of the abyss and go to its destruction.
Speaker:The inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world, will be astonished when they see the beast because it was once, now is not and yet will come.
Speaker:So it's really a confusing verse, but let's take it apart here.
Speaker:The beast is defined as opposite of the Trinity, the Holy Trinity, god the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker:And as we saw in previous chapters of the unholy or incomplete Trinity, well, this verse points to that.
Speaker:It says, you saw or was, is now not, and then to its destruction.
Speaker:This unholy Trinity does not have the power of our Holy Trinity of being, was, is and is to come.
Speaker:That's the holy complete Trinity.
Speaker:The future here is to come, is replaced by destruction or the end of it.
Speaker:And again, however, those who have followed the beast and have rejected Christ will be astonished that all that they have believed in and put their stock in is being exposed for false religion and power that it possessed for only a limited time.
Speaker:Satan and his false or fake religion do not have staying power and those who have clung to their false doctrines are going to be in for a huge wake up call.
Speaker:Verse nine.
Speaker:This calls for a mind with wisdom.
Speaker:The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.
Speaker:And again here John calls for a mind of wisdom.
Speaker:Only wisdom from God is true wisdom.
Speaker:The verse come now, let us reason together, which is found in Isaiah 118 was very well known by those who knew the Old Testament Scriptures.
Speaker:And no one who is without God can ever know true wisdom.
Speaker:Wisdom comes from God and it is the only wisdom that means anything of value.
Speaker:Wisdom coming from anywhere other than the word of God cannot be relied on.
Speaker:Man simply cannot make up their own moral laws which we're seeing today.
Speaker:God wrote his laws and therefore only true wisdom is based upon his moral code.
Speaker:Most scholars agree that the reference to the seven heads here, which are the seven hills on the woman, are referring to Rome.
Speaker:And Rome as we know, was the most powerful government system of John's time.
Speaker:And today Rome points to the powerful world governments that control everything, namely what a lot of people call the shadow government of the Cabal, the dark forces that truly govern and rule over our corrupt leaders and governments and religious systems.
Speaker:Verse ten there are also seven kings.
Speaker:Five have fallen.
Speaker:One is, the other has not yet come.
Speaker:But when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.
Speaker:The seven kings refer to the dominance of the world's largest governments.
Speaker:Some explain these seven kings 01:05 present and one to come as the succession of what we saw in the Roman emperors in John's era.
Speaker:But there are many historical difficulties with this approach.
Speaker:More likely it's a reference to the five have fallen.
Speaker:Could be five world empires before John's day, which were Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Meadow, Persia and Greece.
Speaker:1 may refer to the world empire of John's day which was Rome and the other which has not yet come, could be referring to the world empire that is predicted to come.
Speaker:Maybe what we're in right now, the 7th kingdom will be quickly taken over by an 8th and it will become a state of the Antichrist.
Speaker:There are problems with this viewpoint as well, so many take it as seven being symbolic.
Speaker:But plainly many of these passages are difficult and so we cannot make it into a big point of argument or contention.
Speaker:The important thing is to see the message of the entire chapter.
Speaker:Verse eleven the beast who once was and now is not is an 8th king.
Speaker:He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction here.
Speaker:This verse clearly points to the final world governments that this final kingdom or kingdoms will not last and they are headed to complete and final destruction.
Speaker:Amen to that.
Speaker:Verse twelve the ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but for who 1 hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast, while the ten horns which are the ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, most likely alludes to a ten nation confederation, as we've seen in Daniel 224 through 45.
Speaker:It was the image that was seen there.
Speaker:You can go back and read that.
Speaker:But some take ten as a symbolic number only many believe this is what is pointing to a one world government or a one world religious system and a one world monetary system.
Speaker:And are we seeing many signs of that and many references to that? If not, you've been asleep at the wheel.
Speaker:It's being discussed over and over and over.
Speaker:Verse 13 they have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.
Speaker:Well, there it is right there.
Speaker:It says they have one purpose and that's for complete domination.
Speaker:This one world, everything is under the power and authority of Satan, and these systems are in opposition to God.
Speaker:Verse 14 they will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them, because he is Lord of Lord and King of Kings, and with Him will be called his chosen and faithful followers.
Speaker:Here is confirmation that this one world domination is indeed against Christ.
Speaker:This one world system is truly anti Christ.
Speaker:But Christ the Lamb will triumph because he alone is the Lord of Lord and the King of Kings, and with Him are those who have stood by Him.
Speaker:He's called his chosen and his faithful followers.
Speaker:Where you guys? We are called personally by Christ.
Speaker:He invites us to follow Him.
Speaker:We are chosen by Him and what a privilege that is.
Speaker:And then we must follow Him.
Speaker:If we are called and chosen, our duty is to follow Him.
Speaker:Christ extends his invitation to be part of our lives, but we must say yes, and then we have to move forward in faith.
Speaker:Verse 15 then the angel said to me the waters you saw, where the prostitute sits are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.
Speaker:In this verse John goes back to the beginning of the chapter to further define where the prostitute sits, which is the waters representing all of those who are not a part of God's kingdom.
Speaker:And this means, and it's pointing to a great multitude and a world domination.
Speaker:Verse 16 the beast and the tin horns you saw will hate the prostitute.
Speaker:They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked.
Speaker:They will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
Speaker:So ultimately the antichrist which is wanting to build up all of these systems, will eventually not tolerate any worship except of himself.
Speaker:Satan, who opposes and exalts Himself above all that it's God or that is worshiped, so that only he sits in the temple of God, showing Himself that he is God.
Speaker:You can read two thessalonians two three through four for a reference here.
Speaker:Then it says they will eventually selfdestruct cannibalizing itself.
Speaker:Evil will become increasingly more and more evil, which cannot sustain itself.
Speaker:You guys, evil is death and corruption.
Speaker:So it just goes to reason when you're using your wisdom that it can't last.
Speaker:The once glorified world systems, they will be destroyed from within, which is and always has been the goal of Satan, so that he is the last man standing.
Speaker:Verse 17 for God has put into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over their beasts, their royal authority, until God's words are fulfilled.
Speaker:So God directs the judgment against the religious Babylon and he will often use a wicked group to be an instrument of his judgment against the false religions, the false world governments.
Speaker:All of God's prophecies and truths will endure for all times.
Speaker:And Satan's fake and false, everything will not last.
Speaker:Godless governments and leaders will never be able to sustain themselves.
Speaker:There is no basis.
Speaker:God will give the world exactly what it wants.
Speaker:Godless religions and Godless rulers.
Speaker:Verse 18 the woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.
Speaker:Well, this great city, you guys, that is referring to the one world system who are under the control of Satan.
Speaker:So your truth bomb for this section.
Speaker:Our current world is being mesmerized by an evil agenda.
Speaker:You can see it plainly.
Speaker:Many people are under the spell of Satan and his lies.
Speaker:So your call to action, how are you staying awake to the truth of God's word and his laws? And so your summary is john is clear that in the end times many are going to be sucked into the allure of this one world, everything.
Speaker:Don't we see this push today? Just accept everyone, make all people equal, including men who desire to become or identify with being a woman, and vice versa.
Speaker:All agendas that are in opposition to God and his creation, well, they're being forced upon everyone to accept.
Speaker:And those of us who say no to such lunacy, well, we're called evil, unbending judgmental and sinful.
Speaker:It is just as God said it would be in Isaiah 520.
Speaker:Woe to them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light, and light for darkness that put bitterness for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Speaker:But the best news of all for us as believers is that with God and his Holy Spirit within us, we cannot fall into the deception of the beast and his evil agenda.
Speaker:When our eyes are wide open and we remain alert and awake, you guys, we will stand firm, we will stand tall, and we will remain resolved in our faith and in our stance for Christ.
Speaker:And we must do so.
Speaker:And we must do so together.
Speaker:So my ten word sentence to sum up this entire chapter is this Satan's? Allure will fool all those who are without Christ.
Speaker:Let me close in prayer, father god, your truths in Revelation are so astounding and so eye opening.
Speaker:And I pray that people are able to see that you are in control.
Speaker:That no matter what's going on around us, we must keep our eyes firmly planted on you, Father.
Speaker:And it is in your name we pray.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Be sure to visit my website, Dr.
Speaker:Paulmcdonald.com.