End Times #10 (Rev 17-19)
Last time we discovered that we are living in the end-times.
That soon the world as we know it will come to an end.
Jesus is coming to set all things right.
A question that keeps coming up is “when will all this happen?”
My answer is that all this has happened, all this is happening,
and all this will happen.
We have this strong urge to stick Revelation on some sort of calendar.
But to do so would be totally artificial because there is no calendar in
the Book.
To impose one is to ignore what John of Patmos is trying
to communicate to us.
This is not a revelation of the future, as we normally think of prophecy.
The Book of Revelation is about Jesus,
Who Jesus is, and based on what He has done,
The triumph and victory that is His.
The Book of Revelation is about how those who abide in Christ are to
live their lives.
The book of Revelation is about “ultimate reality.” (Ladd, p. 242)
Apocalyptic literature, as a genre, is not linear but rather “a series of pictures
whose main concern is not chronology and sequence,”
but rather the disclosure of hidden truth.
(Ladd, p. 242)
Now if you are desperate for a sequence of events Vernard Eller suggests a time line:
Let’s go over it quickly.
From the Old Testament faithful, the Messiah comes.
Jesus is the faithful witness, through His life, death and resurrection
He is victorious over all forces of evil.
What we see is that the forces of evil with all their might are really powerless,
And the Lamb who appears powerless through ferocious love is
Really victoriously mighty and invincible.
(Eller; Morris, p. 202)
Satan is defeated, thrown out of Heaven, and seeks to destroy the people of God.
Satan calls forth the Beasts, the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet who wage
war on those who abide in Jesus.
The time of this war is 3 ˝ years, a concept drawn from the Book of Daniel.
1260 days, 42 months, 3 ˝ years,
is symbolic for the time of persecution.
The vision of the Seals, Trumpets and Bowls cover this time of crisis,
trauma and the martyrdom of the Church.
Then civilization collapses.
Babylon is devoured by the very principles it founded itself upon.
We will be considering the fall of Babylon today.
After the fall of Babylon we see the Parousia of Jesus,
The second coming of Christ.
In earlier discussions we determined that what occurs between the fall
of Babylon and the Parousia is what people popularly call the
Rapture of the Church.
The rest of the events in the sequence we have yet to consider so I’ll leave them for
now.
Here’s the problem,
We are linear thinkers, we also tend to be egocentric and nationalistic.
Since we know that the Unification of God Faithful,
Popularly called the Rapture, has not yet happened,
We assume that we are living in the times in which it will
occur.
So we keep looking for signs.
Signs that we force to be a fulfillment of
what we read in the book.
We see current events and make them fit our
interpretation of the Revelation.
And when we do we go on a wild goose chase.
The purpose of the sequence of events in Revelation is to provide hope and
motivation.
With an expectancy we live our lives a certain way.
We follow the Lamp.
We ferociously love bringing the Kingdom to
others.
We separate ourselves from conformity to the ways of
the world, the Empire of the Beast.
We become a peculiar people.
We live holy lives.
Fueled by the hope that soon God will set all
things right and the desire to be living
righteously when that occurs.
Even in the face of intense persecution and martyrdom,
Believers stay steadfast in their faith,
Loyal to the cause of Christ,
Obedient to God, because it has been
revealed to us that we win.
This is the message that God is speaking to every generation that reads the
Book of Revelation.
What happens is that we get stuck asking the question “when,”
While we should be living holy lives now.
When will all this take place? The answer is “soon.”
So live your life in the light of eternity.
Live your life with a sense of urgency.
God has placed a calling on your life.
Now is the time to work your calling.
Today we will cover Chapters 17-19.
That’s a whole lot of material so once again you will find extra notes in the
unedited manuscript of this presentation on line.
Let’s begin
Revelation 17:1-2 (MSG)
One of the Seven Angels who carried the seven bowls came and invited me, "Come, I'll show you the judgment of the great Whore who sits enthroned over many waters, the Whore with whom the kings of the earth have gone whoring, show you the judgment on earth dwellers drunk on her whorish lust."
In chapter 12 John introduced us to the Women Clothed in the sun.
We said that she symbolizes God’s faithful people.
With the surrealism and fluidity that John uses in his writing,
This woman has represented the Old Testament Faithful,
The mother of the Messiah and
The New Testament faithful,
The Church.
She inhabits the city called Jerusalem.
She represents those who live a devout and holy life.
In Chapter 19 she becomes the Bride of Christ.
Keeping with the symmetry of a good apocalyptic story John now fully reveals the
Bad Guys Babe.
She is not an adulteress, one who was once faithful to God and now is
not.
Instead she is described as a whore. (Morris, p. 204)
Willing to get into bed with who-so-ever will.
On the outside she is “all glittering splendor,”
She looks like an air brushed super model.
But John tells us its all a deception. (Morris, p. 203)
She seduces the world with her offers of “power, authority, and
glory.”
She seduces with offers of “wealth, luxury, glamour,
sophistication and culture.” (Eller, p. 155)
The kings of the earth, those who rule in the Empire of the Beast have
“entered into intimate commerce with her.” (Ladd, p. 222)
Together they oppresses the poor and the needy,
They exploit the outsider and the naďve.
They deny justice.
They seek to meet their own needs at any
cost to others.
They see this world as their banqueting table,
And in a wild orgy gobble up anything they want.
They hate anything and anyone who does not join in with them.
They do not tolerate criticism, or censure,
or someone telling them what they are doing is wrong.
The whore has a name:
Revelation 17:5 (MSG)
Great Babylon, Mother Of Whores And Abominations Of The Earth.
Babylon,
the culture, the city, the civilization that is opposed to being God’s people;
The system that rejects God,
And kills God’s holy people.
Being enthroned on many waters symbolizes her
influence over the entire world.
And then John reveals to us the foundation on which she stands.
She is mounted on the Beast, the Anti-Christ.
The Beast is the power supporting her.
Make a connection for me:
When you think Anti-Christ, think egoism.
She is destined to fall.
The history of the world so far as revealed to us that evil has a way of
collapsing in upon itself.
Evil seems to devour itself from the inside out.
And it will be the Beast, who will turn on it’s rider.
It is the Beast who will “violate her, strip her naked,
rip her apart … then set fire to her.”
Rev 17:16-17 (MSG)
“This turning of the beast upon the woman who sits upon him speaks of
‘a terrible and mysterious law of political history:
every revolutionary power contains within itself the seed
of self-destruction.’” (Mounce p. 391)
And it also speaks of what egoism does unrestrained.
It becomes lawless, devouring everything, eventually bringing
about its own demise.
Recall the revolution started with the eating of the fruit from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
The rebel is egoism.
Have you hung the rebel inside of you yet?
For an explanation of verses 7-17 I will direct you to the hbcc.org website.
[
We know that John drew his imagery from his times. The obvious answer to they mystery of the Beast which Babylon rides is the Rome Empire. One can see how John would understand the Roman Empire with it’s Caesar, Emperor Worship, as the Anti-Christ, the False Prophet, upon which the whole civilization resides.
The Beast in Rev 17:3 is the same as the Beast in Rev 13:1 which we have already identified as the Anti-Christ. John explains some of his symbolism for us. In 17:9 the seven heads are really seven hills. Again this points to Rome, the city built upon seven hills. The seven heads are also seven Kings (17:10). Following a more preterist interpretation, the Anti-Christ would be one of the Caesars. The question becomes which one.
Revelation 17:10-11 (NIV)
Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.
“The likeliest explanation is that John is projecting himself backwards into the reign of Vespasian. The five who have been are Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero; the one who is is Vespasian; the one who is to come and who is to last for only a very short time is Titus; the one who is to be the equivalent of the head wounded and restored, who is to be Nero all over again, is Domitian, the man of savage cruelty.” —Barclay's Daily Study Bible So according to Barclay, the Beast is Domitian.
Another understanding more keeping with the Book of Daniel is that the five represent the historical super powers. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persians, the Greeks, the one that is now would be Roman, “and the seventh, yet future, may stand for ‘all anti-Christian governments between the fall of Rome and the final empire of the antichrist.” (Morris, p. 210)
Eldon Ladd appears to support the idea of a succession of kingdoms. “The great harlot who seduces the nations and persecutes the saints finds her support form the beast who appears in history in a succession of secular, godless kingdoms; five belonging to past history; a sixth kingdom –Rome—ruled the world when John wrote. …a seventh kingdom is expected which will have only a short reign.” (Ladd, p. 229)
Or perhaps we are taking the numbers too literally. “In other apocalyptic writings the number of ages or world periods conforms to different numerical schemes. In 2 Esdras 14:11 history is divided into twelve parts, of which 9 ˝ (or 10 ˝) have already passed. In the Apocalypse of Weeks, Enoch divided history into ten periods, seven of which are already past (1 Enoch 93), and three yet future which lead to eternal judgment (1 Enoch 91:12-17) The single purpose of the acpcalypists in all such number schemes is to declare the imminent end of the age. …The important point is that the end is drawing near.” (Mounce, p. 315-316)
Vernard Eller suggests another explanation of this passage. He draws attention to Rev 13:8 (666) and ties it to Rev 17:9-17 and suggests that these passages were not written by John of Patmos. Eller is of the opinion that an “Interpolator” added these verses to help readers understand who and what John was writing about. Concluding that Nero is the best candidate for the Anti-Christ. (Eller, pp. 159-167)
Meanwhile the futurists (e.g. Hal Lindsey, Tim Lahaye) see the one to come as the head of state of a revived Roman Empire, which they suggest is the European Union. There famous Ten Nation Confederacy is their speculation of Rev 12-13.
Revelation 17:12-13 (NIV)
The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast. They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.
Mounce writes: “Many writers identify [the ten kings] as Parthian satraps coming from the east in a massive invasion under the leadership of a revived Nero.” (Mounce, p. 317) I haven’t spoken about the Nero Redivivus myth. “Nero Redivivus Legend is a popular belief during the last half of the first century that Nero would return after his death in 68 AD. The earliest written version of this legend is found in the Sibylline Oracles. … It claims that Nero did not really die but fled to Parthia, where he would amass a large army and would return to Rome to destroy it. … Some bible scholars see the Nero redivivus legend as an allusion to the wounding and healing scenario of the Beast in Revelation 13:3 and to the eighth king who is also one of the earlier seven kings in Revelation 17:8-11. Domitian is also regarded as the Nero redivivus, i.e., Nero returned in the person of Domitian. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Redivivus_Legend )
The ten kings have also been interpreted to represent “purely eschatological figures representing the totality of the powers of all nations on the earth which are to be made subservient to Antichrist.” (Mounce, quoting Beckwith, p. 317)
What it all boils down to is that the scholars are clueless. Dare I plunge into my own speculation? Sure why not.
Babylon is mounted on the Beast. We have this riddle of who or what the beast is, with heads and horns, kings and hills. None of that really matters. Regardless of what you figure out about from Rev 17:9-13 the bottom line is verse 14:
“They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers" (Rev 17:14 (NIV). The Dragon, Satan is waging war against the Church, the Beast, secular authority is Satan’s main weapon for destroying the Church. One could think of the Beast as a set of beliefs out of which man builds systems of governance based on egoism. (consider the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11) The system is catastrophically flawed. The civilization built on egoism can not stand. Egoism ultimately devours itself. Egoism will be ultimately overcome by Christ. In Rev 17:16 we see this destruction occur. Egoism devours the very civilization it has built.
]
Three times John has described the collapse of civilization.
In the vision of the seals,
Revelation 6:15 (NIV)
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
After the resurrection of the two witnesses
Revelation 11:13 (NIV)
At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.
And when the 7th bowl of wrath is poured out.
Revelation 16:19 (NIV)
The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
These are not pictures of annihilation,
They are pictures of collapse.
The supports upon which men build their world have become rotten.
The foundation upon which their empires have been built,
Are unstable ground.
And Why?
Because humanity has an enemy.
The Dragon, and through the influence of the Beast and the
False prophet a majority of the human race has foolishly
built their homes on sinking sand.
Let’s bring this closer to home, lets take this into the human heart.
The human predicament is caused by three sin problems.
Original sin, which is estrangement from God.
Sin Nature, which is egoism, the desire to be our own
authority.
Actual Sins, the things that we personally have done to
deter, damage or destroy relationships.
Egoism, the sin nature, left unchecked destroys life.
Egoism devours itself.
We see it most clearly in the life of the addict.
This being their own authority,
The arbitrator of morality,
Has got them hooked and life begins a slow
spiral downwards into chaos and
eventually death.
Proverbs 14:12 (MSG)
There's a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell.
Proverbs 16:25 (NLT)
There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.
A culture, a civilization founded on egoism goes the same way.
It just bigger and moves more slowly.
But as history has shown us, every great nation has fallen.
Every world power became corrupt and rotted from the inside
out until to fell.
The Anti-Christ is egoism.
Now John tells us of Babylon’s demise, he reveals the nature of this collapse.
Revelation 18:1-3 (MSG)
Following this
I saw another Angel descend from Heaven. His authority was immense, his glory
flooded earth with brightness, his voice thunderous:
Ruined, ruined, Great Babylon, ruined! A ghost town for demons is all that's
left! A garrison of carrion spirits, garrison of loathsome, carrion birds. All
nations drank the wild wine of her whoring; kings of the earth went whoring with
her; entrepreneurs made millions exploiting her.
“One aspect of Babylon’s fall is nothing more than the stripping away of her
glamour so that she can be seen for what she truly is;
her outward state now reflects what her inner being always has been.”
(Eller, p. 168)
She is stuffed with blasphemies, brimming with obscenities,
Full of abominations. (Rev 17:3-5)
The mask has been pulled off and the whole world sees the monster
that they crawled into bed with.
And suddenly they want no part of her.
After the fall of Babylon there is a gathering of the faithful.
Rev 18:4-5 (MSG)
Just then I
heard another shout out of Heaven:
Get out, my people, as fast as you can, so you don't get mixed up in her sins,
so you don't get caught in her doom. Her sins stink to high Heaven; God has
remembered every evil she's done.
(Isaiah 52:11; Jeremiah 51:45; Gen 12:1, 2 Corinthians 6:14)
Not only is this a call for believers to separate themselves from the conformity to
the culture and its norms so that you don’t caught up in the plagues that
befall her,
It also speaks of what people popularly refer to as the rapture.
Instead of Rapture I simply refer to this gathering of the saints as the
event that occurs immediately before the Parousia of Christ,
the second coming.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (NIV)
According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Come out of this city.
Come out of this culture.
Come out and away from everything that would steal you away from
your first love.
Come out because compromise with the
world and its ways is fatal. (Morris, p. 216)
Revelation 18:9 & 11 & 17-18 (MSG)
"The kings of the earth will see the smoke of her burning, and they'll cry and carry on, the kings who went night after night to her brothel. …The traders will cry and carry on because the bottom dropped out of business, no more market for their goods… "All the ship captains and travelers by sea, sailors and toilers of the sea, stood off at a distance and cried their lament when they saw the smoke from her burning: 'Oh, what a city! There was never a city like her!'
True to egoism, the kings of the earth, the buyers and sellers,
they weep not for the collapse of Babylon,
they weep over the fact that they will no longer rule and get rich
through her.
Then comes Babylon’s demise,
Judgment has come upon the civilizations that man builds apart from God.
[Rev 16: 17-21 ]
Revelation 18:21 & 24 (MSG)
Heaved and sunk, the great city Babylon, sunk in the sea, not a sign of her ever again. …The only thing left of Babylon is blood— the blood of saints and prophets, the murdered and the martyred.
(Jeremiah 51:63-64)
Thus Babylon and all the activities associated with her are destroyed.
The achievements, what one would deem the good that came out of her,
In God’s eyes wasn’t good at all, and are wiped away.
She is swallowed up in the chaos of the end-time,
Sinking into the same place the beast arose from.
Nothing left but the blood of the God’s faithful.
We’ve all heard the term “dead and gone.”
But death does not have the final say for those who abide in Christ.
And as Babylon sinks into chaos,
Those who died are singing in heaven.
Revelation 19:1-2 (MSG)
I heard a
sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing,
Hallelujah! The salvation and glory and power are God's, his judgments true, his
judgments just. He judged the great Whore who corrupted the earth with her lust.
He avenged on her the blood of his servants.
From the lament and tears of the kings of the earth to the rejoicing and joy of the
Followers of the Lamb.
John symmetry and balance is maintained.
A “heavenly jubilation breaks out in marked contrast to the solemn dirges of
the kings, merchants, and seafarers whose economic empires have
collapsed with the devastation of” Babylon. (Mounce, p. 336)
In the vision of the seals, the martyr’s asked the One who sits on the throne:
"How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our
blood?" Rev 6:10 (NIV)
Finally these under the altar receive their answer.
Revelation 19:7-9 (MSG)
Let us
celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory! The Marriage of the Lamb
has come; his Wife has made herself ready. She was given a bridal gown of bright
and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints.
The Angel said to me, "Write this: 'Blessed are those invited to the Wedding
Supper of the Lamb.' " He added, "These are the true words of God!"
The women clothed in the sun,
the people of God,
the Church is now the Bride of Christ.
The faithful followers of Jesus receive what was promised to
those who overcome.
Revelation 3:4 (NIV)
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
An invitation from the very throne room of God has been sent to you requesting
your presence at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
You are invited to dinner.
Are you right now prepared to attend?
In Matthew Chapter 22 Jesus tells us the parable of the wedding banquet.
Matthew 22:11-12 (NIV)
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?'
The wedding clothes are the righteousness of Christ.
To dress in these garments, you must strip off your rags of egoism.
You’ve been invited to the feast.
Some reject the invitation.
Some accept the invitation.
Some accept but are not properly attired with clean
hands, pure hearts, adorned with Christ.
Matthew 22:13 (NIV)
"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Those not properly attired fall with Babylon.
Egoism, egoism, egoism,
Attitudes, desires, wishes, that are contrary to the purposes of
God in your life.
Egoism needs to be rectified.
The mind of selfishness must be transformed
to the mind of Christ.
Has that happened in your life?
Are you involved in the process of rectification now?
If so you are prepared to attend the Feast.
If not, you need to have a conversation with God,
And ask what needs to be done in you to get you
ready.
Are you appropriately dressed?
Today we’ve seen the fate of Babylon, the whore of egoism.
All culture built apart from God collapses from within.
Conformity to her ways is ultimately fatal.
But God’s faithful are victorious.
Babylon is seductive.
Like a skilled fisherman,
Knowing the fish she wants to catch,
She knows your ways.
She knows exactly the right kind of equipment to use.
She knows the right time to start fishing,
She knows the most effective bait.
When you bite, she reels you in slowly,
She’s an expert,
Most don’t even realize they’re hooked.
Most can’t escape her nets.
Even less escape the frying pan.
How is she avoided?
Don’t you think you had better find out,
Especially since all this is coming down soon.