Revelation 17:1-18, “1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me,[1] "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." 3So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.[2] 5And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. 1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me,[1] "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." 3So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.[2] 5And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. 7 But the angel said to me, "Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. 8The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.[3] 9"Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
12"The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." 15Then he said to me, "The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. 16And the ten horns which you saw on[4] the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 18And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."
This is a sad reminder that God created man to worship Him and to bear His image, yet the willful rejection of His offer is then best described in terms that man wished to worship himself, but in the process of worshipping himself, then proceeded the combustion from which we have today false religion. Since the Fall this longing has driven humanity to seek the one thing that it truly desires, the Messiah. Yet “there is none who seek for God” (Romans 3:11), because Jesus declared “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Yet man’s need for worship is best found in a relationship with God that has been then corrupted by a result of its decision to love sin instead of its Creator. Paul described this in Romans 1:21 as, “even though [people} knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.”
It is then in this environment that we walk into for the Word describes Satan as, “the father of lies (John 8:44) his demonic agents then are disguised as angels of light (2 Cor 11:14-15) spreading “doctrine of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). Yet it is exactly this that Satan does is play on humanity’s irrevocable desire to worship that in turn gets humanity and mankind in trouble. False religion as was discussed in the introduction gets mankind in trouble because its appeal comes from that same desire that God gave to mankind from the creation of the world to worship Him. Yet it was their decision to rebel against God that Satan uses to this day to turn those who oppose God to false satanic religions which in turn dams them to eternal condemnation as a direct result of their willful rejection of Christ and the Gospel of Grace. Yet God in His mercy though man no longer seeks God, God still seeks man. Jesus came to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) that is the Good News of the Gospel, and counters the false religion which in the tribulation shall be prevalent, and is the direct counter, counterbalancing the darkness of Satan’s agents in this present age so that those who are drawn to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, will then come to know the truth, even though the world spreads its tentacles about so as to lead people away from the very truth that is contained in knowing Jesus Christ personally through repentance, and acceptance of His death on the Cross for them personally granting them the gift of pardon through acceptance of Messiah’s sacrifice.
Yet it is exactly this same false religion that will guide the world during the Tribulation. All the world’s false religious cults will then be reunited under the guise of unity so as to form a one world religion. This then would be the ultimate form of false religion which our world so seeks so as to stop religious persecution, yet is exactly what they long for the secularists that will happen and then in the process create the worst imperial government the world has ever known. Satan under the guise of religion will unite the world in the most compelling way: politically, economically, and militarily will then be united in the guise of religion, yet it is that same desire to worship that God gave us that shall accomplish this. It makes one stop and think seriously. Is my faith really my own, and am I really stopping to consider what I really believe is even in the Word of God at all? This is why we are to study to show ourselves approved workmen who do not need to be ashamed of the revelation of God’s love for us as shown through the work of Christ on the Cross. This is exactly the point of the Apostle Paul in 2nd Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Yet is it exactly this reason why the physical geographical, historical, economic and cultural barriers to worldwide unity will then be demolished so as to cause world unity. Yet this is exactly what Chapters 17 and 18 reveal to us. Chapter 17 reveals for us the spiritual nature of Antichrist’s kingdom; while Chapter 18 follows with its material aspects. Yet it is God who will destroy both aspects of Antichrist’s kingdom. Yet it is also this that leads us to see that chapters 17 and 18 lead us back in time to the description of the seventh bowl judgment, which then sparks the coming of Messiah to begin the Millennial kingdom, which will then be established as Satan’s forces are defeated by the words of the Lord which are as a Sword. The pouring out of the seventh bowl then in 16:17 is actually followed then in time by the return of Messiah to end the battle in 19:11). So then what we see are that chapters 17 and 18 are not out of the flow of Revelation, but take us back in time to digress in Chapters 17 and 18 to what is being judged. What is being judged then? The worldwide system of Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet, for John already saw the destruction of Babylon in 14:8 and 16:19, and what he sees now are mere details of that destruction.
This false religion will be based upon the Babylonian cults which have pervaded our culture. Babylon was the site of all idolatry the site of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. This tower of Babel is really a ziggurat, which in modern terms would be a place to go worship. Art history tells us that the people got tired of waiting for the god’s to answer them so they in turn built statues to receive the visions and revelations from there “gods”. On the tops of these ziggurats has the zodiac which was used by pagan priests then to chart the stars. Through the watching of the stars then priests gained insight and wisdom spiritually of the future. It is remarkable to me that this is mentioned almost right after the flood. Yet man’s desire to worship anything apart from God should best be seen by man’s desire in thinking that the grass is always greener on the other side, when it really isn’t at all.
Nimrod was the leader of the plot at Babel was also Noah’s great grandson. Genesis 10:9 describes him as a great hunter before the Lord, and points out to the fact that “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Reboboth-Ir and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city (Gen 10:10-12). What does this show for us? It is possible that Nimrod foreshadowed the final Antichrist. God judgmentally scattered those proud rebels from Babel (Gen 11:8), and they took their false religion around the world with them. In spite of the scattering, Babylon remained an idolatrous center of false worship. At one point in the city’s sordid history, it contained no less than 180 shrines dedicated to the goddess Ishtar (Charles L. Feinberg, “Jeremiah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986], 6:643).
Ishtar was called the Queen of Heaven. Jeremiah rebuked then the Jewish remnant as a result of this that they had fled to Egypt for the idolatry that had lead to their downfall, yet instead of repenting they remained defiant as Jeremiah 44:15-19 describes, “15Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: 16"As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! 17But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. 18But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine." 19The women also said, "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?"
God through Jeremiah, pronounced judgment on these Jews, for their stubborn defiant adherence to the Ishtar cult in Jeremiah 44:20-27, “20Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people--the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer--saying: 21"The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind? 22So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day. 23Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day." 24Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! 25Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: "You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, "We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’ 26Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: "Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ says the LORD, "that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "The Lord GOD lives." 27Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them.”
Ezekiel points out to the worship of Ishtar and Tammuz: “Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz” (Ezek 8:14). Babylon has then as we have seen been an important center for false religion, because it is the place where Satan’s seat is. It is where in the Tribulation Satan will deceive the people as he did at Babel, and from there launch a false religion over the whole earth, which will deceive the whole world once again, yet this time the world will not be scattered as it was at Babel, the whole entire system will be destroyed by the coming judgment of God at the end of the Tribulation period. The false religion shown as a harlot then is the theme of this vision, which records the exposure of the harlot, the explanation of the harlot and the extermination of the harlot, which all leads to the Destruction of the final false religion that opposes the coming of Messiah as the rightful heir to the throne of King David and the establishment of the Milleianl reign of Messiah which we now turn out attention too.
Pastor Jenkins
