Fall of Babylon
Armageddon has happened. We have seen the destruction of all the armies of the antichrist. We will see a little more detail about this in Chapter 19.
Now we are going to see another flashback that has to do with the destruction of Babylon.
Babylon
1. Mentioned 287 times in the Bible. Only city that is mentioned more is Jerusalem
2. Was a literal city on the Euphrates river
3. Start of rebellion against God.
- Genesis 11: 1 – 10
- Place of settling instead of obeying Vs 2
- Focus is on themselves instead of obedience Vs4
- Sin always has us look at ourselves (See Genesis 3: 7)
- Place of no trust in the promises of God. Tower to reach to the sky so no flood can reach us. (See Genesis 9: 12 – 17)
- Nimrod and his wife Semiramis ruled.
- She gave birth to son who she claimed was born miraculously.
- Tammuz was considered a savior of the people
- Ezekiel forbids the weeping for Tammuz Ezekiel 8: 14
- Jeremiah mentions the practice of making cakes for queen of heaven. Jeremiah 7: 18
- He also mentions the practice of offering incense to the queen of heaven Jeremiah 44: 17 – 19 and 44: 25
3. They started astrology or the belief that the stars ordained our lives.
4. Babylon cruelly oppressed Jerusalem when they took over Jerusalem.
5. Name represents everything that is against God.
6. In John’s day Babylon would have been represented by Rome.
IMPORTANT: BABYLON IS A CITY, BUT IT IS ALSO A SYSTEM THAT REPRESENTS EVERYTHING THAT GOD HATES.
Chapter 17
1. The great prostitute. Vs 1, 2
- Prostitution is often mentioned as relating to religious apostasy
See Isaiah 1: 21, Jeremiah 2: 20, 3: 1, 3: 8, Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 23, Hosea 2: 5, 3: 3
- Judgement is to come, Her fate is already determined.
- She rules over many waters. Already mentioned this as representing people. Verse 15 will show us that more clearly.
- She has influence over all the kings of the earth.
- To be clear, The prostitute is false religions that are in the world. We are the bride of Christ so a false church would be a prostitute.
- Drunkenness means she has intoxicated the whole world.
2. What John saw 3 – 6
- Taken into the wilderness, a place of judgement
- She is sitting on the beast
- This beast is the antichrist. (See Revelation 13: 1)
- Rides on the beast so she needs his support, but she is also on top of him so she is controlling him.
- She is a religion, but she has blasphemies written all over the beast who she aligns herself with.
- Paul saw this prostitute in 2 Timothy 3: 1 – 9. She will have a faith that everyone wants.
- She wears scarlet, Vs 4 Notice the bride of Christ is going to be wearing white and linen. (See Revelation 19: 8)
- Wore a headband. Roman prostitutes often wore headbands with their names on them so they could be called out by people who visited them.
- Her name is Babylon the great mother of all prostitutes and the obscenities in the world.
- Notice her compared with woman who gave birth to Christ in Revelation 12
5. REMEMBER: IN SPITE OF ALL HER SPLENDOR, SHE IS A PROSTITUTE.
6. She is drunk with the blood of God’s holy people.
7. John is amazed because he can’t believe this is the church.
3. The Prostitute explained. 7 – 18
- Beast will exist, die and exist again. Vs 8
- Even though he tries to take the place of Christ and His resurrection, his fate is assured in Hell.
- The reason people will be drawn to him is because he rose from the dead.
- She reigns from the seven mountains.
- This is Rome. Only other cities built on seven hills are Jerusalem, Constantinople, and Brussels.
EXAMPLE: Joint prayer meeting between Muslims and christians in the vatican on September 7, 2013
3. Seven kings and kingdoms. Vs 10 This is where we can get into a lot of speculation that will cause arguments in Revelation so I am not stepping into it.
4. Eighth king will arise and he is the antichrist. Vs 11
- Notice that this chapter is full of assurance that the beast and prostitute are headed for destruction.
5. Ten kings will give their power to the beast.
- They will reign for one brief moment. 3 1/2 years.
- They will go to war against The Lamb.
- Rejection of salvation.
- Paul talked about denying the power that can make us holy. (See 2 Timothy 3: 5)
- The Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. We will be with him in this battle (See Revelation 19: 14)
6. Waters defined as people
7. he kings will turn on the prostitute Vs 16
- This is probably when the antichrist sets himself up as god. (See 2 Thessalonians 2: 3, 4)
- This will probably take place after he feels his power is consolidated.
8. The idea to do this comes from God Himself.
- He does this because He is giving the world just what it wants, a godless society.
9. John reaffirms who the prostitute is. Vs 18
4. Key for us is what city are we a part of?
Paul states that we can be a part of the better city, the Jerusalem above Galatians 4: 26