The Fall Of Religious Babylon

- tonight we want to look at some of the events at the end of

the tribulation

- we'll be in Rev. 17

- I'd like to take a moment and set the context of this

chapter chronologically

- if you remember back to one of our first messages on

Revelation, we looked at one of the possible ways of

outlining the book based on 1:19 (things which thou hast

see, the things which are, the things which shall be

hereafter)

- there's another way of dividing the book that may be

helpful for our purposes tonight

- you know that the book of Revelation is a series of visions

where Christ reveals himself and his plan to the apostle

John

- if you count the visions, you'll find that there are four

primary visions, and John begins each one by using the

phrase "in the spirit"

- what he means by that phrase is, here's what the spirit of

God revealed to me through supernatural means

- those four occasions are:

- 1:10 - I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day - vision

of Christ and His church

- 4:2 - Straightway I was in the spirit - vision of

Christ and His world

- 17:3 - and he carried me away in the spirit - vision of

Christ and His enemy

- 21:10 - and he carried me away in the spirit - vision

of Christ and his victory

- tonight's passage is the third great vision, where Christ

tells us some important things about what will during the

tribulation

- from a chronological perspective, John has just about told

us everything that is going to happen before the second

coming of Christ and the Battle of Armageddon

- what's happening in these final chapters is that the angel

that God has directed to reveal these trues to John is

showing John some of the final things he needs to know

- as you read the verses, its as if the angel is saying,

before you go, you need to understand this

- before you write to the Revelation churches, you need to

understand this

- its best to place the things happening in these chapters in

the first half of the tribulation

- I think as we look at this passage it will become evident

why John needed to know these things, why the Revelation

churches needed to know them, and why you nd I need to know

them

- before we start reading these verses, we also need to talk

about one more introductory matter

- that is, John is going to be talking to us about Babylon

- we've titled chaps. 17-18 the fall of religious and

economic Babylon

-I doubt that that will hit us the way it would have hit his

original readers

- when John wrote to the original Revelation churches and

mentioned Babylon, his readers would have thought about two

things

1) historically

- remember, the first time the city of babel is

mentioned in the Bible is in Gen. 11 where the

people defied God and sought to build a city that

would reach up to the heavens, lest they be

scattered

- of course that was in direct rebellion against God

who had told them twice (once at creation and once

after the flood) to scatter themselves, be

fruitful, and multiply

- so Babel right from the beginning was associated

with rebellion, defiance, self-sufficiency, and

pride

- of course also from a historical perspective, the

Jews also hated the Babylonians because the

babylonians had taken the Jews into captivity and

destroyed Jerusalem

- that self-sufficiency and pride was seen in kings

like Nebuchadnezzar, who Daniel says, looked around

at Babylon and said, "Is not this great Babylon,

which I have built for a royal dwelling place, by

the might of my power and for the glory of my

majesty?"

- so Babylon in the Scripture often represents that

anti-God philosophy characterized by rebellion,

defiance, self-sufficiency, and pride

- also we need to say this about Babylon, it often

refers to more than a geographical location

- like Wall Street - refers to a literal place but

refers to much more than that at the same time

- John's original hearers also would have thought about

Babylon:

2) geographically

- to a person in Bible days - Babylon was Rome

- cf. I Peter 5:13 - closed his letter with "she who

is in babylon sends you greetings"

- the book was written from Rome

- the significance of that point should become more

apparent later

- lets see what God reveals to John about this subject

- read 17:1-6

I. Religious Babylon

A. symbolized as a harlot

1. significance

when we talk about religious babylon, we're talking

about the apostate church which flourishes for a time

during the tribulation

- to be sure this is clear - we're not talking about

the true church - we're talking about unbelievers

who have some snese of religiosity

- they'll be called the church in that day - but they

won't be regenerate

- this chapter is going to make it clear that they

will have a worldwide religious organization going,

completely filled with unbelievers

- symbolizing this group as a harlot wouldn't be

unusual at all

- God had told Israel on a number of occasions that

they were behaving like harlots because they had

left him and gone after idols

- its also not surprising that God would symbolize

this group as a harlot since they are exactly

opposite of whom? (the church, the bride of

Christ)

2. descriptions

a. sits on many waters

- read vs. 17 - waters are people who have

been deceived by this religious system

- the end of verse 2 expands that - she's

made the inhabitants drunk with her

fornications

- just like wine deceives a person and makes

him think he's invincible and all the rest,

many on earth have been deceived by the

ways of this harlot

b. sinful connections with the government

- not that the church should never have any

impact on government, but its clear that

the relationship with the harlot and the

government is fornicatious, in that they

are using each other to sinful ends

c. wearing costly array (so even though she was

a pictured as a harlot - wicked on the inside

-impressive on the outside - at least from

the perspective of how se dressed)

e. cup full of abominations, filtiness,

blasphemy

f. mother of harlots

- so this anti-God religious system is

reproducing itself

- now you might ask this question -where are all

these religious leaders going to come from?

- after all - the rapture has occurred - all the

believers are taken away

- where are all these religious people going to

come from who will make up this religious

system?

- INPUT? (from all the poeple who would consider

themselves religious but have never trusted

Christ as Savior and Lord)

- you realize that there are many, many

groups that long ago denied:

- the deity of Christ

- the virgin birth of Christ

- the inspiration of the Scriptures,

- the reality of Christ's miracles

- thats what the fundamentalist/modernist

controversy was about 60 years ago

- frankly, there are some whole denominations that

won't be affected much at all by the rapture

- it will be business as usual for them

- everyone will be in their place the next Sunday

morning

- I think we need to say this - not everyone who

calls Faith Baptist Church their home is going to

be raptured either

- only those who have truly trusted Christ as Lord

and Savior will be going

- so there will be all kinds of "religious" people

around

- its interesting that in many of those groups, the

big buzzword is ecumenism, and the ecumenical

spirit

- forget doctrinal differences, lets just love one

another - lets just co-operate and get along

- (we'll talk about that more later)

- so religious babylon is symbolized as a harlot

B. supported (borne along) by the beast and his

confederacy

- its important to notice that this harlot is riding

a beast

1. identity of the beast

read 7-8

- its not hard to identify this beast

- INPUT - who is it? (the Antichrist)

- INPUT - what is the significance of the fact

that the harlot is riding the beast?

(the harlot and the Antichrist are working

together - they're in "co-hoots")

- they are using one another

2. identity of his confederacy

- you might remember the ten horns and the little

horn from the book of Daniel

- the ten horns are the rulers of a sort of

"United States of Europe" which unite uner the

Antichrist

- we won't take time to read verse 9-12, but they

describe the confederation in some detail

- I would like us to note verses 13-14 (read)

- INPUT - what do these verses tell us about the

confederacy? (united together against

Christ and against the believers)

- so we're talking about an established religious

system that actually is supported by the

Antichrist and is therefore againstChrist and

the true believers

- now, ironically, the same group that gives the

harlot power destroys her

- read verses 16-17

- we're not going to take time to look at in tonight, but let

me just point out that chapter 18 describes the fall of

economic babylon

- you might say - what does the economic system have to do

with it?

- answer is - in the end times - its all one big system

- you might say it this way - its a new age of a global

society

- the world's not getting smaller, its getting closer!

- the AntiChrist will actually have religion under his

control and the economy under his control

- I've given a brief outline of chapter 18 from Warren

Wiersbe if you'd like to do some special study on this

subject

II. Economic Babylon - chapter 18

A. Voice of condemnation - 1-3

B. Voice of separation - 4-8

C. Voice of lamentation - 9-19

D. Voice of celebration - 20-21

III. Implications

A. Importance of "saved church members"

- I think one of the results of studying these verses

is seeing the importance of having church members

who are truly regenerate

- its frightening to think about an entire religious

system that is so spiritually bankrupt that they

would actually be in league with the AntiChrist

- we're not talking about a few doctrinal deviations,

we're talking about a group that would call

themselves religious yet actively and aggressively

war against Christ

- we need to think about how if the rapture took

place tonight, that group would be up and

functioning early in the tribulation

- in other words, if that were to happen, the

Antichrist could find plenty of people to use right

here and now

- when you think about it, thats a sad commentary on

the state of the "church"

- one of the distinctives that Baptists have

historically stood for is saved church members

- that means that historically, as long as Baptists

have been around, a church that was truly a Baptist

church required that an individual say that he was

saved before he could be allowed into the

membership of the church

- thats why we ask folks to give their testimony

before they are voted into the church

- I'm sure there are folks from time to time who

don't care for that practice - but I wouldn't be

for making it any easier to become a member of our

church, would you?

- of course that doesn't mean that the church can

truly determine whether the person is really saved,

but at least everyone knows that they have to say

they are saved before they would be allowed to be

members

- I think thats part of our heritage to be thankful

for

- you may not have been around churches that did it

any other way, but some of you have been at

churches where getting a membership was kind of

like joining the YMCA - you sign here, pay your

money and you're in

- if you've ever been in a situation like that, you

know that the church isn't much different than the

world, because the church is filled with

unbelievers

- its not surprising that a group of religious people

will be primed and ready when the Antichrist comes

- I think we need to say this about that as well

- part of the responsibility for this problem falls

on the shoulders of pastors - I'm thinking of

liberal pastors

- . . . who give people the impression that

everybody's going to heaven

- you go to a funeral, and you know the person who

died never had any time for God, never was in

church, never claimed to be saved and certainly had

no evidence of it - -

- yet by time the pastor got done with the

funeral, you thought you were at the funeral of

the apostle Paul

- not only did he have that guy preached into

heaven, but he had everyone in the room

preached into heaven as well

- I'm sure many folks in here have been in

that situation as well, and it makes you angry

- it also helps you to understand this passage a

little, because there are a lot of unsaved

religious people around

B. Have an "understanding of the times"

- God commended the children of Issacahar in I Chron.

12:32 because they had an understanding of the

times, and they knew what Israel ought to do

- I'm not trying to make some sort of eschatological

prediction, but when you look at the events around

us, you have to believe that conditions have never

been better for the return of Christ

- of course we believe that Christ could have

returned at any point in history, but at least in

my lifetime, conditions have never been better for

the return of Christ and a quick transition to the

way the Bible describes the tribulation conditions

- if these aren't the last day, things today are

certainly are like what the last days will be

- let me give you a couple of examples

- you probably know today that one of the great moves

in education is toward producing the "global

student"

- Dr. Chester Pierce said to a group of 2000

teachers:

- "Every child who enters school at the age of

five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with

allegience toward our elected officials, toward our

founding fathers, toward our institutions, toward

this form of government we have...patriotism,

nationalism, sovereignty. . . all this proves the

children are sick, because the truly well individual

is one who has rejected all those things and is what

I would call the true international child of the

future"

- those kind of statements shouldn't surprise us

since the introduction to the 2nd humanist

manifesto stated:

"The ultimate goal should be the fulfillment of

the potential for growth in each human

personality-not for the favored few, but for all

mankind. Only a shared world and global measure

will suffice"

- we're not saying that every public school teacher

is a card carrying humanist

- but certainly the public policy of the NEA, along

with actions of administrators and especially those

in curriculum are pushing the "global child" idea

- what comes with that is:

- equal distribution of wealth

- democratic socialism

- lack of individualism

- the idea that nationalism is wrong

- you could hold whatever religious beliefs you

want, but you should never think yours are

better than anyone else's

- total support of the United Nations

- the fact that that's happening in many aspects of

education and society out to make us ask at least

two questions:

1) what's wrong with that?

2) what should our response be?

- 1) what's wrong with that?

- a lot of these things are very slippery to deal

with because their are aspects that are right

- there's nothing wrong with telling a college

student that he should pick up a foreign language

so that he can compete better in a foreign market

- but some educators have crossed way over that line

- we're not just talking about understanding more

about another country

- they would have us become just like other

countries

- get rid of that notion that your beliefs,

standards, way of doing things are more

superior

- get rid of this nationalism, this loyalty to

America and her ways of doing things

- instead, lets sit around and talk about what it

must have been like to be living in Hiroshema when

America dropped the atomic bomb instead of talking

about all the reasons that led up to it

- we will have to become more adept at understanding

the subtle nuances of this global mentality and how

we are going to keep our children from it

- where that will really affect us, I think, is the

issue of Christianity

- see, when the person says - you believe in the God

of the Bible but I believe in Buddha, and to get

along in this global community, you believe what

you want to and I'll believe what I want to--

NEITHER ONE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER

- then we're going to have problems, because if the

belief that faith in Christ is the only way to God

is to going to hinder a move toward globalism, then

so be it

2) what should our response be

in addition to what we've already mentioned, we ought

to be more convinced than ever that, Christ's return

could happen at any day

- 20 years ago when pastors talked about one world

government and a united Europe and some of those

things, people would laugh

- but no ones laughing any more

- and if there was ever a time to believe that Jesus

is coming soon - this is it