Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I now can sing Since I've been redeemed I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock I faith in Christ my redeemer King I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock Then Ro Ro pillows O love surpassing knowledge O grace full and free I know that Jesus saves me and that's enough for me and that's enough for me oh, that's enough for me I know that Jesus saves me and that's enough for me O wonderful salvation from sin he makes me free I feel the sweet assurance and that's enough for me and that's enough for enough for me oh, that's enough for enough for me I feel the sweet assurance and that's enough for me O blood of Christ so precious Poured out on Calvary.
I feel it's cleansing now and that's enough for me and that's enough for me for thee O that's enough for me I feel its cleansing power
[00:02:26] Speaker B: and
[00:02:27] Speaker A: that's enough for me.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the Voice of Hope, a Bible teaching program produced by Heralds of Hope. I'm your host, Anthony High.
In this episode, we continue our study through the Book of Revelation.
This book reminds me of a play in a theater.
As we move from scene to scene, the curtain closes and then opens on a whole new setting. Today's teaching opens on a new scene with a mysterious new character, yet the same familiar conflict.
To wrestle with this mystery, please join us as J. Mark Horst teaches from Revelation chapter 17.
And let's open God's word together.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Karl Marx is famous for his statement that religion is the opiate of the masses.
Of course, in the 1800s, opium was a common and legal medicine that was used to dull physical pain.
But Karl Marx meant that religion helps people cope with the pain of a hard life.
In his mind, it was only needed by those who were weak.
You know, as followers of Christ, we embrace that weakness and we trust in God's strength to enable us.
Since Marx denied the existence of God, he didn't understand that we humans are incurably religious.
That's because God designed us that way. He created us to be worshippers, and so we will inevitably worship someone or something.
According to Ezekiel 28:14, Satan was the anointed cherub that covers. In other words, he was very close to the throne of God. So he knew about worship and he wanted worship for himself.
And because of his desire to usurp the worship that belonged to God alone, he got kicked out of heaven.
And ever since, he led our first parents into sin. The human desire for worship has been corrupted and misplaced.
Romans 3 tells us there is none righteous. Not even one. No one who understands, no one who seeks after God.
As we've noted earlier in our study of the Book of Revelation, Satan has a counterfeit trinity made up of himself, the beast, and the false prophet. And the goal of this false trinity is to induce people to worship him rather than worshiping God.
And indeed, we've seen this in Revelation 13:4, which says so they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast and who is able to make war with him?
In order to consolidate this worship, Satan will gather his followers into a worldwide religious system.
In the early 1900s, we had the ecumenical movement, and then later in that same century, the creation of the World Council of Churches. And they may have been precursors to this final attempt to unite all religions. But Satan is going to have greater success, at least for a short time, during these final days of human history.
And those who join his system don't realize that they are pawns in a cosmic chess game.
Satan doesn't care anything for them. The only thing he cares about is his power.
In the arrangement of the Book of revelation, chapters 17 and 18 immediately follow the outpouring of the seven bowl judgments.
However, it seems that these chapters either precede those judgments or they are integrated with them.
Regardless, they show us how God will judge those Satan deceives into worshipping him.
As we'll see, chapter 17 outlines God's judgment on the one world religion. And then chapter 18 deals with one world government.
Chapter 17 is the focus of our study, and the title is Mystery Babylon. It will take us more than one episode to explore this chapter, so listen carefully now as I read the word of God, Revelation, chapter 17.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication. And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy.
Having seven heads and ten horns, the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
And on her forehead a name was Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I marveled with great amazement.
But the angel said to me, why did you marvel?
I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
The beast that you saw was and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition.
And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is.
Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
There are also seven kings. Five have fallen. One is and, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
The beast that was and is not is himself also the eighth and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
These are of one mind, and and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them. For he is lord of lords and king of kings, and those who are with him are called, chosen and faithful.
Then he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.
And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.
And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
This text records scenes from John's vision of the final world religion, pictured as a prostitute. Mystery Babylon. And it also shows us God's judgment upon her.
The first scene we observe is she is identified.
It seems fitting that one of the seven angels with the seven last bowls of judgment should reveal to us this judgment on Babylon, who is called the great prostitute.
In fact, she is mentioned in the preceding chapter.
And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
So the angel's invitation to John was come and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication. And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
These words are very similar to the judgment that God pronounced on Babylon through Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 51 and verses 6 through 8.
The story of Babylon begins in Genesis chapter 11 and verse 9.
There, in direct disobedience to God's command, the people decided that they wanted to make a name for themselves.
They wanted to prevent being scattered across the face of the earth.
And their act of rebellion against God had religious implications.
Remember, they were building a tower that would reach to heaven. And brick towers like the one they built, they were called ziggurats, had the sign of the zodiac on their tops. And pagan priests would use those signs of the zodiac to chart the stars.
By doing that, by observing the stars, the priests supposedly gained spiritual insights and knowledge about the future.
When God scattered the people from Babel, they took this false religious system with them. And despite the scattering, Babylon remained a world renowned center of idolatrous worship. In fact, the beautiful Ishtar gate of Babylon was briefly listed among the wonders of the then known world. Because it featured alternating rows of sculpted lions, they symbolized the goddess Ishtar and bulls, they symbolized the storm God Adad and dragons, they symbolized the patron God marduk.
In Jeremiah 40:4, the prophet rebuked the Jewish remnant that had fled to Egypt for the idolatry that had led to their downfall.
And then, instead of repenting, they remained defiant in their worship of the queen of Heaven. That was one of the names that was given to Ishtar.
However, in the end times, the devil who deceived the people originally at Babel and from there lodged his false religion all over the earth, he will deceive the world once again to greater effect.
The great harlot that will be judged is obviously not an actual prostitute. The term is a metaphor for false religion, for idolatry, for religious apostasy.
There are several other cities in scripture that are designated harlot cities because of their idolatry and their pursuit of false religions.
Nahum mentions nineveh in Nahum 3:1,4. Tyre is mentioned by Isaiah in chapter 23 and verses 15 to 17.
And sadly, Jerusalem is also mentioned in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 21.
The waters on which the harlot sits are explained to us in verse 15 as peoples and multitudes. And nations and tongues.
All of these details should help us understand that we are dealing with a religious system.
Rulers from around the world will become obsessed with the Babylonian harlot. They will be deceived by the false prophet, by the Antichrist and Satan and his demon hosts, and they will become enamored with this false world religion.
Chapter 13, verse 8 says, all who dwell on the earth will worship and Antichrist, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.
But having joined themselves to this harlot economically, socially, militarily, politically and religiously, they will ultimately share in her disastrous fate.
Their intoxication with her indicates that they were under her control, and Jeremiah prophesied this in his writings. Chapter 51, verse 7.
Now with that introduction, John is carried by the Spirit into the wilderness. And there he sees a woman, further identified in verse 18 as that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. And she is sitting astride a scarlet colored beast with seven heads and ten horns that is full of the names of blasphemy.
This beast is supporting her, and she in some measure is controlling him like a horse and rider.
Religion will be the initial unifying and controlling factor of Antichrist's kingdom. And so this description plainly indicates that the apostate Church has eagerly sought and solicited the adulterous relationship with the political powers of the world that will exist at that time.
But we know that alliance will not endure. According to verse 16, this woman that John saw is dressed in purple and scarlet. She's bejeweled with gold and precious stones and pearls. This was the apparel of the rich and especially the temple prostitutes of Asia Minor in John's day.
Here we see the simultaneous height of adornment with the very depths of corruption.
You know, the more the Church loses her inward values, which in the sight of God are of great price, according to 1 Peter, chapter 3 and verse 4, the more she seeks to atone for this loss by sensual and extravagant dress.
It's always been this way, as indicated by isaiah in chapter 3, verses 18 to 16.
There he lists 21 pieces of dress that were worn by the idolatrous daughters of Zion.
Furthermore, in the hand of this woman was a golden cup, and it was filled with abominations and the unclean things of her fornication.
Scripture does not spare words in describing the utter filthiness of this adulterous relationship in the sight of God.
Few crimes in Scripture are spoken of in more unsparing terms than the crime of spiritual adultery.
And this woman is the epitome of spiritual adultery.
As the alliance with the world and showy pomp increase, so spiritual truth and purity decline.
Eventually this cup in the woman's hand becomes the cup of God's raging fury. And you can read about that in Revelation 14, 10, 16, 9 and in the following chapter, Revelation chapter 18, verse 6.
Furthermore, she has a name written on her forehead.
Now scholars are divided on whether her name is a mystery or mystery is part of her name.
At any rate, they do agree that the mystery is explained by the phrase mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.
Many writers have noted that pagan rites of Babylon crept into the early church.
They were largely responsible for the corruptions that were incorporated into Roman Catholicism.
And it was from those that Protestantism separated itself in the Middle Ages.
This woman is a previously undisclosed Babylon that will be revealed only in the end times.
She will be the mother or the source of all false, idolatrous, blasphemous worship in the time of the end.
We must remember that the pagan influences of Babylon were not all left behind at the time of the Reformation.
Even today, mainline denominations, particularly in the developed world, have embraced all kinds of behaviors that God calls an abomination.
They do things like consecrate same sex unions. You can't accurately call them marriages.
They also celebrate transgenderism. They promote sodomites as pastor teachers.
They extol abortion as a compassionate choice.
Really, it's child sacrifice and we could go on and on.
So the corruption of the end time church should surprise no one because we're already well on the way.
The woman is also drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
If you know anything about history, it clearly demonstrates that the apostate church is unsparing in its persecution of those who refuse its enticements.
Those who strive to maintain a genuine faith in Christ are the particular focus of its ire.
The history of my Anabaptist forebears substantiates this reality.
This hatred will climax in the future when the number of faithful martyrs will be innumerable.
And so as John looked on this woman, drunk with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, he was altogether astounded.
He was confused and shocked, astonished. He was frightened by the ghastly vision of such a contrastingly magnificent figure of the woman with such deadly intent.
Mystery Babylon has been identified.
But what does it all mean that leads us to the next scene, where mystery Babylon is explained.
In response to John's amazement, the angel asks, why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns from the previous visions. John would have understood that the beast was the Antichrist, and he also would have understood that the woman was the false religious system. But what he hadn't seen was the connection between the two figures, and that is what the angel is ready to explain.
We note that the explanation begins not with the woman, but with the beast who carries her, described as one who was and is not and is about to rise from the bottomless pit.
Now, as we noted in Revelation 13, that phrase refers to Antichrist's faked death and resurrection. The false prophet will use that alleged miracle to to deceive the entire world into worshipping Antichrist.
Up until that point, Antichrist's political and economic empire will coexist with the false religious system that is headed by the false prophet. Eventually, however, he will tolerate only one religion, and that will be the worship of himself.
As we previously noted, the beast that John saw is Antichrist, the Satanic ruler of the last and most powerful empire in human history.
He will serve as Satan's instrument to attack Israel, to persecute believers, to conquer the world for Satan, and to do everything in opposition to Christ.
Scripture portrays him in several significant ways. In Daniel 7. 8, we see him as an intellectual genius.
In verse 20 of Daniel 7, an outstanding orator. He's a military leader without parallel in human history. Daniel 7:23.
And then in Daniel chapter 8:25, he is a shrewd, calculating, manipulating politician, and ultimately he is the greatest religious charlatan. Second Thessalonians, chapter two and verse four.
Now, I readily admit that the descriptions of Satan in the book of Revelation are confusingly similar. He is described as the angel of the bottomless pit, chapter 9, verse 11.
And the beast that rises from the bottomless pit, the beast whose deadly wound was healed.
And then also this beast here in our text.
I believe the solution to this intricate problem is that to some extent, Satan is identified with the future world ruler and the world ruler is identified with the world government.
Each of these three entities is described as a beast.
Only Satan himself actually comes from the abyss. And the world government which he promotes is entirely Satanic in its power and to this extent is identified with Satan. It is the beast as the world government that is revived.
The man who is the world ruler, however, has power and great authority that has been given to him by Satan. The fact that Satan and the world ruler are referred to in such similar terms is an indication of how closely they relate to one another.
Ultimately, the beast on which this woman is riding will, in the words of our text, go into perdition, and that phrase is repeated in verse 11.
Some modern versions use the word destruction, but I looked up in Webster's dictionary synonyms of perdition, and they list hell and inferno.
So these will go into the destruction of eternal misery. However, let me quickly say destruction is not annihilation.
Revelation 20:10 tells us the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
You can't be tormented forever if you don't exist.
John is further informed then, that all of those who live on earth and witness these happenings will marvel. They will express the amazement of horrible surprise when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is.
They will embrace his false miracles.
Why? Because their names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.
The specific cause for their amazement?
That will be Antichrist's seemingly miraculous return to life after he received an apparently fatal wound.
According to Matthew 24:24, Jesus said, Only the elect will not fall for this deception by the Antichrist.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Calvary Savior Divine now hear me while I pray Take all my gifts away Honest me from this day be.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: That concludes the first part of our teaching from Revelation, chapter 17.
John wrote Revelation to encourage believers who were suffering under terrible persecution.
Are you able to say that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of life?
If you are not sure if or you can't answer that question, reach out to us and one of our staff would be willing to talk with you.
Before we close, consider this sobering reality One in three people around the world lack access to Bible resources.
Pastors, ministry leaders, and seekers are often left without the tools that they need to grow or to disciple others. At Heralds of Hope, we believe that everyone deserves access to Bible teaching and discipleship resources in their own language.
One way that we're responding to this need is through Hope for Today, a Bible teaching program that's now available in nearly 50 languages.
If today's teaching has encouraged you, we'd love to hear from you. Your stories and responses mean so much to us. You can reach out to us at heraldsofhope, contact by email at hope heraldsofhope.org or by phone at 866-960-0292 to explore more Bible teaching, especially our video podcast called Guide through the Bible, you can visit Heralds of Hope.
Join us the next time as we continue our journey through Scripture.
Until then, may God's Word strengthen your faith and remind you that his work in the world is far from finished.
Thank you for listening to the Voice of Hope.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: O let me walk with Thee, my God, as you.
Place thou my trembling hand in Thine and sweet communion with me, hold in all the path I make.
Yet, Jesus, let me walk with Thee.
If I may rest my hand in Thine the joys of earth, but loss and firmly, bravely journey on, I'll bear the banner of the cross Till Zion's glorious gates I see.
Yet, Savior, let me walk
[00:28:50] Speaker C: with the.
