Although we’ve certainly come across some difficult passages in our journey through the Book of Revelation, there is little doubt that the passages that we’ll examine over the next two weeks in chapters 17 and 18 are the toughest to deal with. There are so many different opinions about what all the details in these chapters represent. For instance, the city represented by the woman in chapter 17, which we’ll look at in just a few moments, is identified by various commentators as Jerusalem, Rome, the city of Babylon, or even New York City. But as we’ve seen with much of the book of Revelation, it seems silly to argue about these kinds of details when frankly God just doesn’t give us enough information to make those kinds of determinations with any degree of certainty. And the danger of that approach is that while we’re arguing over the details, we are probably going to miss what we can learn and apply from taking a step back and looking at the big picture.
So before we tackle chapter 17 this morning, it’s really crucial for us to take a step back and understand the overall picture that is painted for us in chapters 17 and 18.
The first thing that is apparent in these two chapters is that much of this is clearly figurative or symbolic language. Just like the beasts we saw earlier in the book were not literal beasts, but rather represented the human Antichrist and false prophet, the woman prostitute that we’ll see in chapter 17 is not a literal woman who is seated on literal waters. We can be confident of that conclusion because many of the elements in this chapter are identified clearly in the chapter as symbols which represent something else.
Babylon
The other important element that ties these two chapters together is that of Babylon. As a city, Babylon is second in importance in the Bible only to Jerusalem, with nearly 300 mentions in Scripture.
In the Book of Revelation, Babylon represents more than just a physical city located in present day Iraq. It is used as a symbol in much the same way that we use the terms “Wall Street” or “Hollywood”. Although those terms do indicate a physical location, we generally use them to represent much broader concepts like our financial system or the film industry.
We are going to see that in the book of Revelation, Babylon represents two separate, but related, aspects of the human systems that will be significant factors in the events surrounding the Day of the Lord.
• Chapter 17 – a world religious system
• Chapter 18 - a political and economic system.
This morning, as we examine chapter 17, we need to take some time to understand the Biblical and historical background of the world religious system that has its roots in Babylon.
We are first introduced to Babylon, in Genesis 10, where it is known by its ancient name of Babel:
Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Genesis 10:8-10 (ESV)
So we see that Babel is founded by Nimrod, who is described here and elsewhere in the Scriptures as a “mighty man”. After the flood up until this time, mankind was governed by the patriarchal system where the heads of families heard from God and guided their individual tribes. But then Nimrod became a mighty man and crowned himself the first king in history. And among the cities which were part of that kingdom was Babel.
In order to preserve his kingdom, Nimrod needed two things: a central place where the people could come together and be united and a means to encourage and inspire his people. In essence, Nimrod becomes the first person to try and establish a one world government and he attempts to accomplish that through his plan that is described for us in Genesis 11:
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth
Genesis 11:1-4 (ESV)
The first part of Nimrod’s plan is quite evident. He convinced the people to all settle in one central location in a plain in the land of Shinar. But to fully understand the second aspect of his plan we need to go to historical records that provide us with some more insight into the reasons behind building the tower.
Although, as we would expect, there are some differences among the historical records surrounding the events of Nimrod’s rule, we can put together a pretty good picture of what was going on at this time.
In order to provide a way to motivate and inspire people, Nimrod created a religious system, along with his wife, a woman named Semiramis. Depending on which source is used, Semiramis was either a prostitute or Nimrod’s mother. But all the accounts picture her as the main instigator in developing a false religion for the purpose of securing the people’s loyalty. That false religion took something that God had originally created for His purposes and corrupted it by mixing falsehood with the truth.
God, through the constellations, has placed in the heavens the account of God’s plan of salvation. That is almost certainly what David was referring to in Psalm 19:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19:1 (ESV)
Even before man had any Scriptures whatsoever, he could learn of God’s plan of salvation by viewing the constellations that God had placed in the heavens. That is also the reason that Paul could make this claim in Romans 1:
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 1:19, 20 (ESV)
But Nimrod and Semiramis corrupted that which God intended to draw people to Him and instead designed a plan to secure their rule over the people. A tower known as a ziggurat would be built to a great height and at the top would be a shrine to the sky gods that Nimrod wanted the people to worship. In Genesis 11:4 the reference to the tower “with its top in the heavens” is not a reference to the height of the tower, but rather the fact that there were inscriptions of the stars and other heavenly objects that were the object of worship at the top of the tower. The drawings of the constellations, which should have pointed people to the one true God, were corrupted and instead used to cause the people to worship the false gods who would help Nimrod retain his power. This was the beginning of the practice of astrology which we see is still alive and well in Babylon during the time Daniel was in captivity there and which remains very popular even in our day.
But during the height of his power, Nimrod died a violent death. Semiramis, who was pregnant from an adulterous relationship devised a scheme to protect her power. She proclaimed that:
• Nimrod’s death was voluntary and self-sacrificial for the benefit of the world.
• Nimrod would rise again by mystical means.
• She was a virgin and that Nimrod "visited her in a flash of light and the baby was the reincarnated Nimrod".
• Nimrod’s rising in the form of her son was the fulfillment of the prophecy of a redeemer in Genesis 3:15
This entire proclamation was a further attempt to counterfeit the truth of God and corrupt His plan of salvation.
The baby, named Tammuz, was taught the lie and as the supposed reincarnation of Nimrod was worshiped as the sun god. Not surprisingly, Semiramis was also worshiped as a goddess and became known as both the “Mother of God” and the “Queen of Heaven”. The latter term is used in the book of Jeremiah in reference to the pagan religions that had infiltrated the Jewish faith and led people into idolatry.
I know that is a lot of information, but as we go through chapter 17, I think you’ll see just how relevant this is to that passage. This morning, I’m just going to read through the passage and make a few brief observations along the way and then we’ll wrap up our time by seeing how this applies to us.
1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
We’ll see later in the chapter that this woman is identified as “the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” While this may be a reference to a literal city, the more important idea here is that the woman represents a religious system that has its roots in ancient Babylon.
The many waters on which she is seated are later identified as “are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages”. This is a picture of how this religious system is used to control people as the political leaders form an alliance with this false religious system in order to further their authority and power.
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.” 6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
The woman is also sitting on a scarlet beast, who we saw earlier in the book of Revelation, where he represented Satan:
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
Revelation 12:3 (ESV)
The picture here is that this false religious system is held up by the one who actually created it in the first place – Satan.
The fact that the woman is so beautifully adorned speaks to the attractiveness of this false religious system. But what appears to be attractive at first is full of impurity. We’re going to come back and address that more in a few minutes.
Here is where we find the reference to Babylon. And Babylon, the seat of all false religion, is accurately identified here as the “mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations”.
When I saw her, I marveled greatly. 7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
When John sees this he marvels or wonders at what he is seeing. Unlike the persecution that he and his fellow believers faced in his time, which came from the pagan culture around them, this persecution was going to come from a religious system, albeit a false one.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
This is describing the very same event that was described from another perspective back in chapter 13:
One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
Revelation 13:3 (ESV)
As we mentioned at the time, it is not totally clear here whether the head represents the ruler himself or the political system over which he has dominion.
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.
Many commentators have tried to claim that city of Rome is in view here since it is known as the “City of seven hills.” But the word used here clearly means mountain and not hills. Mountains in Scripture are often used as a picture of power and authority and given what we see in verse 10 where the seven heads are identified as seven kings, this seems like the most probable meaning of the mountains here.
The description of the seven kings is one of the more problematic parts of this passage, but the most reasonable and likely explanation is as follows:
• “five of whom have fallen” – the five word empires before John’s day:
o Egypt
o Assyria
o Babylon
o Medo-Persia
o Greece
• “one is”
o Rome
• “the other has not yet come”
o A “revived” Roman empire
This would be completely consistent with the two visions that Daniel had in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. At that point in time the Egyptian and Assyrian empires were gone, but both of Daniel’s visions revealed the next five empires – Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and the “revived” Roman empire.
11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.
This is also completely consistent with Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7 where the Antichrist would arise out of this confederation of ten kings that would be in place prior to the return of Jesus:
As for the ten horns,
out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,
and another shall arise after them;
he shall be different from the former ones,
and shall put down three kings.
Daniel 7:24 (ESV)
14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
This is where we can draw our practical applications this morning, so we’ll come back to this verse in a minute.
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, 17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
Here is where the woman is identified as “the great city” and the waters are identified as “peoples and multitudes and nations and languages”, as we pointed out earlier.
At first, the Antichrist and his political alliance use this false religious system to serve their purposes in order to consolidate their power, much the same as Nimrod did in Babylon. But at some point, when they no longer need that religious system they will hate it and will completely destroy that system. That is a pattern that we have already seen occur throughout history with those that are types or pictures of the Antichrist.
We saw it with Antiochus Epiphanes when he first made alliances with the Jewish religious system and installed his own hand-picked high priest. But once he had no more need of that religious system, he cast it aside and even erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple and went into the Holy of Holies and sacrificed a pig on the altar.
We saw a similar process with Adolf Hitler in Germany, where he first formed alliances with the churches in order to solidify his power, but later turned on them and slaughtered millions of Christians.
I know that we’ve covered a lot and really only skimmed the surface on much of this, but I want to make sure that we have some time to discuss how all this applies to us. And what we can draw out of this passage is both a word of warning and a word of encouragement.
WARNING AND ENCOURAGMENT
• Warning – Christ followers are not immune to being seduced by false religion
There is little doubt that many who call themselves Christians are going to be seduced by this false religious system. And even those who have placed their faith in Jesus and are genuine Christ followers are not immune to being seduced by it either. Not only is that evident in the book of Revelation, but it has also been demonstrated throughout Biblical history and even right here in Tucson, Arizona over the last week or so.
Throughout the Old Testament we find that the Israelites never totally rejected their faith in God. But what did occur time after time is that they engaged in something called syncretism. They continued to worship YHWH, but they mixed in some of the religious practices of the peoples around them as well. I could provide you with numerous references to this practice, but this passage from 2 Kings will suffice to illustrate the point.
They also feared the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
2 Kings 17:32, 33 (ESV)
The people continued to serve their God, but they mixed in serving the gods of the people around them as well.
Historically this practice is most prevalent in times of crisis and chaos, exactly as we have seen in the Book of Revelation. When God begins to pour out His judgments, people are going to be looking for some relief and unfortunately, many of them are going to find it in a false religious system.
But we don’t have to go back thousands of years to see this process of syncretism at work. We’ve seen it in play here in Tucson in the last week or so, not surprisingly in response to a time of crisis.
When Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people were gunned down last Saturday, it caused our community to draw together in many different ways. And while much of that is good, there is an aspect of that process that we all need to be very wary of. Because in that process, those of us who are Christ followers could have very easily been tempted to engage in some behaviors that are contrary to the truth of Scripture. Let me give you just a couple of examples.
How many times did you hear someone use the phrase “thoughts and prayers” in the last week? But have you thought about what that really implies? There is a syncretism of sorts occurring there between praying to the God who is Most High in the name of Jesus and merely thinking good or positive thoughts. And the danger is that by using that phrase we begin to elevate positive thoughts and place them on the same plane as genuine prayer.
Or how about all the different candlelight vigils that were held over the past week or how many people lit candles for the victims. I even saw a Facebook page called “Light a Candle of Healing” which as of Wednesday had over 90,000 people who had “lit a candle of healing” on their Facebook page. While there is certainly nothing wrong with the mere act of lighting a candle, when used in this context, it is associated with a number of pagan practices, including praying to statues of saints or of Mary.
Finally, just as we saw after 9/11, there have been a number of ecumenical services where people of all faiths are encouraged to join together in some kind of worship or memorial service. Like many of you, I watched the memorial service on Wednesday night and it was a very moving event. But it began with a Native American blessing that appealed to Father Sky and Mother Earth and spoke of masculine and feminine energy.
I know that some of you are probably thinking that these are really trivial matters. But that is exactly how the evil one gets a foothold in our lives. Most of us can easily recognize the blatant false teaching and religion around us. For instance, I don’t think that any of us had any problem recognizing that the Westboro Baptist Church that originally planned to protest at the funerals of the shooting victims this week was promoting false religion. That is why the greatest danger to us is from some of these things that seem trivial at first glance. But they aren’t trivial to God as evidenced in His Word:
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV)
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Ephesians 5:11 (ESV)
As Christ-followers we are not immune to being seduced by false religion.
• Encouragement – we guard against being seduced by false religion by being with the Lamb
I promised earlier that we would return to verse 14. Let’s read it again:
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
There is a lot we could learn from this, but let me just point out one phrase here – those with him. The ones who are called and chosen and faithful and thus who are not seduced by false religion are those who are with Jesus – the ones who spend time in His Word, getting to know Him; the ones who spend time in prayer getting to know Him, the ones who spend time in true fellowship with other believers getting to know Him.
I know I’ve shared this illustration with you recently, but I think it bears repeating again. The way that Secret Service agents are taught to recognize counterfeit money is not by learning about all the different types of counterfeit money, but rather by becoming completely familiar with the real thing. They get so familiar with the genuine currency, that whenever they see something that doesn’t measure up to that, they can immediately spot that which is not right.
The fact is that there are so many different false religions out there and new ones popping up each day, that even if we spent all our time together learning about these false religions, we would never be able to even begin to address all of them. That is why we spend our time learning about the real thing, Jesus. When we get to know intimately the one who is the way, the truth and the life, then it becomes very easy to spot counterfeit religion.
At the beginning of the year, all of the elders began reading the Bible together according to a common reading plan that we are following. And on Wednesday morning this week, we were all reading Psalm 19. I shared the opening verse of that Psalm with you earlier in explaining how God revealed his plan of salvation in the stars. Wednesday also happens to be the day when I try to finish at least a first draft of my sermon for Sunday. And I don’t believe that it is any coincidence that as I was working on this message I was also reading these words from the heart of Psalm 19 with which are a great picture of what it means to be with the Lamb. Let’s stand and read them out loud together as I close:
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 19:7-11 (ESV)
