Revelation 18 - 19 Series

Revelation

Chapter 18 & 19

Revelation 18:1

There is the great angelic announcement from heaven.

A great angel comes down from heaven.

He is coming from God Himself, and he is coming with great authority and power.

See his glory: he is so glorious that the light of his glory blazes across the whole earth.

This symbolizes that his message and mission are meant for the whole earth.

The glory of what he is about to announce is for the ears of the whole world.

18:2-7 there are the reasons why Babylon, the capital of the antichrist, will be destroyed.

Remember Babylon can also represent godless society.

Five reasons are given why God will destroy the city.

1. Babylon will be destroyed because of spiritual corruption (Rev.18: 23-24.)

Babylon, the great city of the end time, will not look to God. Therefore, it will become...

· The place for devils and their worship.

· The place for every foul spirit.

Look how graphically the picture is painted: it will become the cage for every unclean and hateful bird.

The morals and sins of Babylon will run so loose that the city will become a center for every foul and unclean spirit and filth of the under world.

· Immorality, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, abnormal sex-all forms of immoral behavior will run wild.

· Lying, stealing, and cheating will run rampant.

· Lusting after more and more of the possessions and pleasures of the world will increase greatly.

· Sorcery, devil worship, witchcraft, palm readers, fortunetellers, and astrology will be revived and run loose

There will be few who will believe and follow Christ and the Word of God.

Babylon and society will be spiritually corrupt.

Scripture says that there are several spirits that corrupt man.

~ The spirit of bondage. Ro.8: 15

~ The spirit of the world. 1 Cor.2: 12

~ The spirit of man. 1 Cor.2: 11

~ The spirit that works in the children of disobedience. Eph.2: 2

~ The spirit of false teaching and preaching.1 John 4:1

~ The spirit of error. 1 John 4:6

2. Babylon, the great capital city, will be destroyed because the city corrupted nations, kings, and merchants (v.3).

The word "fornication" tells us what this means: fornication means spiritual fornication, the rejection of God and the turning to other gods. The world of the end time will be days of secularism, humanism, and materialism.

Man will worship himself and his secular society. He will focus his life around...

Technology pleasures education

Science recreation comforts

Babylon, the capital of the world, will take the lead in the secular society.

It will have economic wealth that will literally intoxicate the world.

The businessmen and merchants of the world will grow rich because of its wealth. Its wealth will be so vast that it will be able to control nations and leaders and businessmen allover the world.

The point is this: the capital city will use its influence for evil, for secularism and power. The city will manipulate the nations and leaders of the world to follow its own evil purposes.

Rom 2:24

Even today, if all the nations of the Middle East could be united under one rule, the confederation of power could make enormous demands and manipulate the money of the nations of the world. How? Through its oil. Add to this confederation some of the nations of Europe, of the Old Roman Empire that will be revived, and imagine the wealth and power. It would be mind-boggling-just stagger the imagination.

3. Babylon will be destroyed because the city will corrupt people through secularism (v.4-5).

One of the easiest things in the world is to become influenced by secularism. A secular society offers comfort, health, education, possessions, pleasures, time, recreation, culture, and art.

It offers all that a person could ever want physically and mentally. But it denies and rejects God.

Therefore, the citizens of a secular society are led to focus life upon this world and nothing more. The result is utterly tragic: the citizens go out into eternity lost and doomed. They enter into whatever lies beyond this world unprepared. And Scripture declares that God and eternity lie beyond this world, either an eternity of hell and punishment apart from God or an eternity of life and reward with God. Therefore Babylon, the great city of secular society, will stand guilty of misleading people into sin, into the false belief of secularism and humanism.

These sins are said to have reached up to heaven and that God remembers its iniquities (v.5).

2 Tim.3: 1-2 / 2 Tim.4: 3 / Gen.6: 12 / ps.12: 1 / Mic.7: 2

4. Babylon will be destroyed because the city will take the lead in persecuting God’s people (v.6). Note the words "she rewarded you." The antichrist and his government of Babylon will launch the worst holocaust the world has ever seen against believers, the Jews, and the religious faithful of the earth.