Revelation 18
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Important messages
Chapter 18
1. After this I saw
another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth
was made bright with his glory.
2. And he called out with
a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling
place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean
bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
3. For all nations have
drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the
earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have
grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
4. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of
her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;
5. for her sins are
heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6. Pay her back as she
herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double
portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7. As she glorified
herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and
mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and
mourning I shall never see.’
8. For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death
and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the
Lord God who has judged her.”
Double retribution: “Fallen, fallen”
In chapter 15, we saw the
introduction of the seven angels with the seven bowls of wrath and chapter 16
related the act and result of each one being poured out. Similarly in chapter
17, we received an introductory description of Babylon and in this chapter, its
actual destruction is detailed.
This is a future, figurative
Babylon and I tried to describe it in the last chapter as basically a religious
system, but heavily involved with the financial and political situation in the
world. Her destruction is total and everlasting. “She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean
spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and
detestable beast” (v.2) I thought of the fall of literal Babylon, as it was
depicted in Isaiah 13, and wondered if that record wasn´t left for us to
ponder, as a precedent to the fate that John predicts for this final city.
Here are a few observations from
eye witnesses, who visited the ruins of historic Babylon a couple centuries ago.
Compare their testimonies with verse 2: “There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts. There are
quantities of porcupine quills. In most of the cavities are numberless bats and
owls. These caverns, over which the chambers of majesty may have been spread,
are now the refuge of jackals and other savage animals.”… “The natives believe
that the ghost of Nimrod walks amidst them in the darkness, and no one would
venture on so hazardous an experiment (that is, to enter the ruins
at night)”… “All the people of the country assert that it
is extremely dangerous to approach the mound after nightfall, on account of the
multitude of evil spirits by which it is haunted.”
Revelation 17
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Important messages
Chapter 17
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.”
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. 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.
The prostitute and mother of prostitutes
One of the seven angels of the bowls of wrath reveals the
fall of Babylon to John, therefore its fall takes place during the time of the outpouring of the
bowls. Verse 19 of the last chapter points us to a spiritual principle,
concerning God’s measurement of sin. In that verse, Babylon the great has
measured up to the full and the time of her judgment had come. Zechariah, in
his seventh vision, brings the same principle to our attention, illustrated by
an ephah, a Jewish measurement of
about one bushel of dry material (Zech.5:5-11). He sees a receptacle which
contains that amount and symbolically, it represented the collective sins of a
people in Zechariah’s land that had come to its fullness.
The sins of the people in the time of Noah reached this
point and in Genesis 15:16, God tells Abraham that the sins of the Amorites was
not yet complete. That would happen in another four generations. Daniel told
King Belshazzar, “You have been weighed
on the scales and found deficient” (Dn.5:20, 22, 27). Belshazzar’s ephah is
full of deficiency! Jesus said to the Jews of His day, “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers” (Mt.23:32).
In the ephah is a woman representing the sin of the
people and it is carried into Shinar, originally Babel, and later Babylon. The “ephah
people” are taken into the land of false religion and idolatry. This woman
becomes a part of the great Babylonian harlot. Scofield comments, concerning Babylon in
Revelation: “The professing Gentile
church at that time, condoning every iniquity of the rich, doctrinally a mere “confusion”,
as the name indicates, and corrupted to the core by commercialism, wealth, and
luxury, falls under the judgment of God.”
Update 2019: Articles Most Read
You will notice that
all of these most read articles are dated from the year 2016, when I did an expositional study in Isaiah. Therefore, most of these articles are from that book. That year we had a great upsurge in visitors
to our English blog and, naturally, they mostly read the current articles. Visits
to some excellent older articles were outnumbered, and therefore I will
continue to provide their titles, dates and links, which appear after the 10
most read articles up to June of 2018, followed by the update to June of this
year.
The order changes a bit, when the numbers are updated and also a new article appears among the ten. The update to 2019 also provides a short summary of each article and I do the same for the older articles below them. I hope, if you have not read these articles, that you will take time to do so.
Our grandson, John,
created this blogspot in 2011 and so the statistics are dated from that time. As
of today, the total number of visits to this English blog has risen to 149,749.
This past year we have had 25,498 visits. When we add the visits to our Spanish
blogspot, the total number of visits increases to 401,458 and the number over
the last year to 75,378 (obviously, we have many more Spanish than English
readers).
Revelation 16
Labels:
Important messages
Chapter 16
1. Then
I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out
on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2. So
the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and
painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped
its image.
3. The
second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of
a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.
4. The
third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they
became blood.
5. And
I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who
is and who was, for you brought these judgments.
6. For
they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood
to drink. It is what they deserve!”
7. And
I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your
judgments!”
8. The
fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch
people with fire.
9. They
were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power
over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
10. The firth angel poured out his bowl on the
throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed
their tongues in anguish.
11. and cursed the God of heaven for their
pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
12. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the
kings from the east.
13. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the
dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.
14. For they are demonic spirits, performing
signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for
battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
Pouring out the bowls of wrath
The time has arrived
for the seven angels to pour out the final bowls of wrath upon the earth. The
time is easily dated in the last 3 ½ years of the Great Tribulation. The empire of
the antichrist has been established and the entire population, except for the
faithful servants of God, has received his mark and are worshipers of the
antichrist image. The angels step out of the heavenly sanctuary (15:6), the throne
room of God, at His command, to accomplish their task.
Revelation 15
Labels:
Important messages
Chapter 15
1. Then I saw
another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues,
which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
2. And I saw what
appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire – and also those who had
conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside
the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.
3. And they sing
the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great
and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your
ways, O King of the nations!
4. Who will not
fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will
come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5. After this I
looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,
6. and out of the
sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright
linen, with golden sashes around their chests.
7. And one of the
four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the
wrath of God who lives forever and ever,
8. and the
sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and
no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels
were finished.
There are three series of seven judgments in the book of
Revelation. In chapter 6 and in 8:1, we learn of seven seals, which had the
power to destroy a fourth part of all that they effected. They seemed to
involve calamities that man brought upon himself. In chapter 8, 9 and 11:15, we
studied seven trumpets bringing judgments, which showed signs of demonic activity,
and they destroyed 1/3 of all, into which they delved. This chapter begins to
relate the woes of seven bowls, which come entirely from the wrath of God and
they bring unlimited destruction, upon everything and everyone on which they
fall.
By the time that the Bible student comes to this part of
Revelation, he should have developed a correct theology concerning God’s wrath.
No one with a normal personality derives any pleasure from the subject, but, on
the proof of Scripture, he is obligated to acknowledge that wrath is
necessarily a part of God’s character. I cannot imagine anyone lacking this
understanding, who will find any profit from reading chapters 15 through 20.
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