Rev. #58-17:1-18 pt. 2 RELIGIOUS BABYLON 6-12-10
Today we’ll continue on in chapter 17 which is telling us about religious Babylon, chapter 18 is telling
us about commercial Babylon, both are destroyed in the tribulation period, religious Babylon about
the mid way point of the 7 year tribulation, and then commercial Babylon near the end as Jesus Christ
returns and defeats His enemies at Armageddon and then He prepares to set up His glorious 1000
year Kingdom reign.
1-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:** [v-15- peoples all over the world.
2-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. -A drunk person don’t really realize what
he’s doing, they are gullible, they’ll believe about any thing they hear, they don’t walk right, or talk
right, their not thinking clearly.
3--’So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a {woman}"religious system" sit upon**
notice, she is in firm control of the political power, she’s seated, the beast, the political system, supports her,
Rome, the political power is under the absolute sway of the religious system at this point.
Roman Catholicism has always desired to be the one world church and at last she will head up a one
world church. As the True Church left back in chapter 4:
3-So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: [the wilderness of religion] and I saw a
{woman}” religious system”, religious Babylon" sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,** [political system, political Babylon] full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. **.
**
The 7 heads of the Roman Empire are: lets notice that these are not the 7 world empires, but Heads of the Roman empire.
1. Julius Caesar—assassinated
2. Tiberius—poisoned or smothered
3. Caligula—assassinated
4. Claudius—poisoned
5. Nero—committed suicide
6. Domitian who was living in John’s day, who was also assassinated.
-The 7th will be the Antichrist, who will be killed and brought back to life; in this way he will
also be the 8th and was of the 7 that we’re going to read about in verse 8.
The scarlet color indicates the glory and splendor of the political power, but it cannot hinder the
suppressive control of the religious leaders, as vet. the antichrist will use her to benefit himself and
about the midway point of the tribulation she is destroyed.
4- And the woman **was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, **colours of royalty- and decked with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication: —she even appears and acts as a harlot.—
5-And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY. BABYLON THE GREAT. THE MOTHER
OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. **-notice 13 words in her title, the number of
wickedness and depravity.
6-And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints.** a reference to saints before the +
church-and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: **~saints that were believers in Jesus, read the
fox’s book of martyrs- and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. **[Amazement-wonder]
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.**
8- The beast that thou sawest was. and is not: and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. and go into
perdition:-acts 1:15-25—tells of Judas as he hang himself and went to his own place, he is in his own
place in a certain part of the bottomless pit at this time as we speak, but will be let out at some
particular point in time to be used again as the Antichrist.—just remember that Judas was the only
man that Jesus called "the son of perdition" that’s in
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And Paul called the man of sin, the antichrist the "son of perdition" in
2nd thess.2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
Judas never called Jesus Lord, he always called Him Master.
v.8- —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 vet is.**
Judas was on earth at one time but now he’s in his own place—and is not at the time John was writing, he had gone to his own place—and yet is, Judas yet is in his own place and will come back to be used again as the antichrist.
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Rome is known as the city of seven hills, but the hills of Rome are not mountains.
The term mountain is commonly used in Scripture as an image of a kingdom.
Psalm 30:7 LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: -
Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD-
Ø Lets remember that the 7 "heads of the Roman Empire" [vs. 3] are not the same as "the 7
Heads, or 7 Mountains" that speak of 7 past world Kingdoms.
9-And here /s the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the
woman sitteth.
We are told in verse 9 that the seven heads of the beast, {the revived Roman Empire} are
mountains, which refers to seven successive world kingdoms represented bv seven former kings, all
of whom supported the religious system of the harlot. -(Great Babylon}—down through the ages,
remember she goes all the way back to Gen. 10: under Nimrod the 1st kingdom that we read about.
— The seven mountains refer to seven successive Gentile kingdoms, which go way back, far beyond
Rome.--
(1) Egypt: This was the first great world empire and the cause of Israel’s enslavement before entrance into the
promise land.
(2) Assyria: Historically this was the next great empire, which took the northern kingdom of Israel into
captivity in 722 B.C.—10 northern tribes-
(3) Babylon or the Chaldean empire: This is where Daniel’s prophecies begin and where we have the captivity ofJudah, the southern kingdom-the two southern tribes of Benjamin & Judah-
(4) Medo-Persia: This Gentile power followed Babylon and was the kingdom under which a remnant of Israel were allowed to return to the land to rebuild the city and the temple (cf. Ezra and Nehemiah).
(5) Greece: This was the kingdom of Alexander and his successors who likewise ruled over the land of Palestine.
(6) Rome: The Roman Empire of New Testament times was the empire of the emperors who reigned from before Christ: Augustus (30 B.C. - A.D. 14), unto Domitian when Revelation was written.
The statement, "Here is the mind that has wisdom" in verse 9 is a warning. Only those who know this
truth and accept it will be prepared to recognize and stand against the deception of this future system.-this is primarily to do with the tribulation saints, but we can glean from it as well.
10- there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is. and the other is not vet come: and when he
cometh, he must continue a short space.
Verse 10 tells us "five are fallen." This refers to the past history of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Medo-Persia and Greece.
"One is" refers to Rome of John’s day, the sixth.
“the other is not yet come " refers to the revived Roman Empire, or the Ten Nation Confederation
of the first half of the Tribulation.
Lets realize the Daniel don’t mention Egypt or Assyria in his prophecy, he begins with Babylon, and the reason is, God didn’t direct him to mention them, he tells about from the time of their captivity.
