All right. Kurt, I don't know if you'll be doing the flipping for these slides. The pastor said you would, but I can also do it if you would rather. Obviously, the pastor's not here, but he asked me to teach his notes, so we'll be continuing in his study in Revelation. So, before we go any further, let's pray and ask God's blessing on this. God, we again thank you for giving us your word. So many treat your word, Lord, as if it is unbelievable, it's a fairy tale, it's fiction, they go on and on, but you have demonstrated time and time again that these are words of life, that they're true, and we gladly proclaim that your word is infallible, is inerrant, and what we're reading is not just It's not just a fairy tale. This is true. And these things are going to happen. And these words are written for our blessing. You give that promise that blessed are those who read your word at the very beginning of Revelation, who read this prophecy. God, please help us to understand the times, to understand what it is that you are doing. Help us to have confidence that you will bring about all that you have said you will do. Please bring glory to your name through this, God. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. All right, the revelation of Jesus Christ, when God reclaims the earth, this is session 31, and we are beginning the third vision, so part one of that. The third vision, Christ as the conqueror of all the forces of evil. And that's from Revelation 17, one through 21, eight. So when this vision opens, all the enemies of God, all the results of sin, all the pain, shame, grief, and terror that has ever been man's lot since the fall, they are active, present, and ruining God's creation. So when this vision concludes, all enemies will have been conquered, all results of sin overturned, punished, and banished forever. evil, all evil will have been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ. All things will be new in the environments of living man and they will be perfect. There will be no separation from God and man, no sorrow, no shame, no sea, no sin. Christ will be unrivaled. There will be no opponents left forever. And this is a marvelous revelation concerning Jesus Christ. This book is about Him. If you remember our sermon from this morning, we really got just a foretaste of that, and Joseph, the blessings of righteousness. Joseph's domain stretched over Egypt and Christ will stretch over the whole world. He's going to fulfill what Adam failed to do. Adam was to exercise dominion over the earth and he failed in that, but Christ, the second Adam, he is going to fulfill that. He's going to complete that and do what Adam could not do. So this is a book of great hope for us. And so we see in 1B, the fall of Babylon, the doom of the harlot, going from Revelation 17.1 through 18.24. Babylon speaks of a system that opposes God. Sometimes in view is a religious system, at other times a political or commercial system. Here, religious Babylon is focused upon in chapter 17. while commercial and political Babylon is focused upon in chapter 18. Clearly religious and commercial Babylon are centered in the same place, a certain city, yet they differ in their spheres of influence. There are two major facets of the Babylonian system that will be judged by God. religious Babylon that prostitutes the truth of Christ, that's number one, and two, commercial political Babylon with its vast influence and wealth centered in the same city. Wolvard writes, Babylon, the source of so many heathen and pagan religions, which have opposed the faith of Israel, as well as the faith of the church, is here seen in its final judgment. In general, however, in chapter 17, Babylon is seen in its religious character. Chapter 18 sees Babylon in its political and commercial relations. Thomas writes, The distinction between the two chapters is that between two systems or networks that have the same geographical headquarters. In chapter 17, it is a religious system that operates independently of and in opposition to the true God, but in chapter 18, it is an economic system that does the same. Two different facets of Babylon. St. Babylon, different facets that we are considering. And so we see first, in 1c, the destruction of religious Babylon. This is going to cover the entirety of chapter 17. So we have, in 1d, an immoral religious system. and one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and spoke with me saying, come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters." Throughout the Old Testament, harlotry was used to picture religious apostasy. When Israel would turn from the true God, or at least the true worship of the God, God constantly warned his people not to play the harlot with false gods. If they did, God would send the prophets to warn His people to no longer play the harlot, but return to the true God. And this is really demonstrated in our major prophets, in Isaiah and in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, that they were calling for the people, turn, repent, come back to the Lord, forsake these idols. Let's see, we see in Exodus 34, 12 through 16. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their asherim. For you shall not worship any other god. For the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice. And he takes some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods." and then Leviticus 26. As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists to play the harlot after them, I will also set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. and then Deuteronomy 31 16, And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. And we really see this beginning with Solomon. He married foreign women. He loved foreign women. And by the end of his reign, he was sacrificing to their gods. And that became the pattern of Israel, save for a few good kings in Judah, that the people worshiped the gods of the nations. and they were not holy unto the Lord." And so here, this apostate religious group is pictured as a harlot, one who commits spiritual immorality or adultery against God. This harlot is described as sitting on many waters, speaking of the vast reach and influence that this harlot has in many lands and among various peoples. The angel will later explain to John the symbolism of the harlot's place on the waters. The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Revelation 17, 15. So, this harlot represents a vast religious system that has turned away from the true God to commit spiritual immorality. It is important to realize that Israel, when she went into idolatry, was called by God a harlot. But the nations who never knew God, who never had experienced a time when they had been God's people, were not called harlots. A harlot represents one who is turned away from the truth. Who is this great harlot then? So we see next the identity of the great harlot apostate Christendom centered in Rome. Verses 2-13. To identify this Babylonian harlot with Roman Catholicism is certainly not going to be popular, but it does seem to have great support. As far back as the days of the Apostle Peter, Rome has been called Babylon. Let's see in 1 Peter 5.13. Roman Catholic apologist Carl Keating even asserts that in the New Testament, Babylon is a code word for Rome. And so in 1E, she has committed immorality with the kings of the earth. Verse two, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. Although this position is no longer in favor of evangelicalism, there cannot be much doubt as to the identity of the Great Harlot being the apostate Roman Church. It is the Roman Church that has made treaties with governments, have exercised great power and influence over nations and kings, and continues to do so. Let us just take a look at two notable examples cited by David Hunt of her commission of spiritual immorality with the kings of the earth. Number one, in 1870, the independence of Italy was declared and what remained of the papal states was absorbed by the new united nation. The temporal powers of the popes were ended, including their prestige and alliances with earthly regimes. The Pope's civil authority was limited to the Vatican, where they remained in self-imposed exile for nearly 60 years until in 1929, Mussolini and Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty. This concordant made Roman Catholicism once again, by national law, the sole religion of Italy. Neither Peter nor Paul, and surely not Christ, would have ever entered into such an arrangement with any government, let alone with a fascist dictatorship. The Vatican, which claimed to be the true and only church, the Bride of Christ, was acknowledged once again as a sovereign state with the status of a secular nation, able to send and receive political ambassadors. Their next quote, one of the key figures in negotiating the 1929 concordant with Mussolini was solicitor Francesco Pacelli. I think I got that right, brother of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. The latter, as Vatican Secretary of State, would play a key role in negotiating the lucrative for the church 1933 Concordat with Hitler. One of the benefits of the Concordat was the hundreds of millions of dollars that would flow to the Roman Catholic Church through Kirkenstuer church tax. throughout the entire war. In return, Pius XII would never excommunicate Hitler from the Catholic Church, nor would he raise his voice to protest the slaughter of six million Jews. The agreements made by Rome with Mussolini and Hitler had far-reaching effects on much of the world's population, lulling to sleep or promoting to sin many who should have viewed the crimes committed by them with horror. Truly, those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. Next we see she is pictured as riding the beast. And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names having seven heads and ten horns. Just a note of the beginning of the third vision starting. The angel said, come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. He is taking John to the future as he did in chapter four, verse one, and here adds the final indication of a new vision. He carried me away in the spirit. This is the beginning of a new vision, the third vision of the book. The identity of the beast is certainly the Antichrist, who rises to power as the political leader of a revised Roman Empire. The harlot is seen to be influencing the political power and giving it direction. Scripture certainly predicts a revived Roman Empire in Daniel 2 and 7. And if this empire comes into existence in the same general boundaries of the old empire, that is Europe, or at least the final form of the NATO countries, then certainly Rome must be viewed as the supreme candidate in the identification of the harlot. We see that she is clothed in the garb of Rome, verse four. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. John Walvert notes, the description of the woman as arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked with gold, precious stones, and pearls is all too familiar to one acquainted with the trappings of ecclesiastical pomp today, and especially of high officials in the Roman Catholic churches. Purple and scarlet, symbolically so rich in their meaning when connected with true spiritual values, are here prostituted to this false religious system and designed to glorify it with religious garb in contrast to the simplicity of pious adornment. The harlot has in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. The cup is the central symbol of the harlot's immorality. From her perspective, the cup's contents represent her own glory and grandeur, but in reality they are her self-destruction. It is a fact that the central focus of Catholicism is the idolatrous and blasphemous celebration of the Mass, in which Jesus Christ is supposedly re-crucified, in which his body, his literal body is partaken of, his literal blood is consumed, and the center of the Mass is the cup or chalice. And next we see she is identified with ancient Babylon and its mystery religions. and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. There can be no real doubt of the connection between ancient Babylonian mystery religions and many current and historical practices of the Roman Church. In fact, the pictures of the Madonna and Child so frequently pictured in Romanism predates Mary in Christ and in reality pictures Semiramis and her son Tammuz. Walvert clarifies the connection between Rome and Babylon. The Bible was full of information about Babylon as the source of false religion. The record beginning with the building of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 10-11. Babylon was important not only politically but also religiously. Nimrod, who founded Babylon, had a wife known as Semiramis, who founded the secret religious rites of the Babylonian mysteries, according to accounts outside the Bible. Semiramis had a son with an alleged miraculous conception, who was given the name Tammuz, and in effect was a false fulfillment of the promise of the seed of the woman given to Eve. Various religious practices were observed in connection with this false Babylonian religion, including recognition of the mother and child as God and of creating an order of virgins who became religious prostitutes. Tammuz, according to the tradition, was killed by a wild animal and then restored to life, a satanic anticipation and counterfeit of Christ's resurrection. So next we see, she is drunk with the blood of martyrs, verse six. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly. The Roman Catholic Church has been the greatest persecutor of both Christians and Jews the world has ever seen. Literally millions have been slaughtered in the name of Christ by the demand and order of the popes. The woman that John sees is not merely guilty of murdering the saints, she has fully entered into it heart and soul. She is drunk with blood. It would not be an exaggeration to picture the Roman church in this way. The most conspicuous of all of Romanism's persecutions were the various inquisitions. Hunt writes about the kind of murder that was repeatedly performed in the name of this church. David Hunt writes, the inquisitors seemed to be drugged into insensibility until their normal sense of horror and sympathy had been numbed. Indeed, to be able to impose the most extreme torture without a twinge of conscience or compassionate thought became a mark of holiness and fidelity to the church. Try to imagine being arrested in the middle of the night and taken to an unknown location, kept secret from family and friends. You are not told the charges against you or the identity of your accusers who remain unknown and thus immune from any examination to discover whether they are telling the truth. Whatever the accusation, it is accepted as fact and you are guilty without trial. The only trial will be the most ingeniously painful torture that continues until you confess to that unnamed crime of heresy of which you have been accused. Imagine the torment of dislocated joints, torn and seared flesh, internal injuries, broken bones on the rack and other devices, mended by doctors so they could be torn asunder again by fresh torture. Eventually you would confess to anything to end the torment, but no matter what you confess, it never fits the secret accusation. So torture continues until at last you expire. Such was the fate of millions. Walvoord aptly notes that the history of the church has demonstrated that apostate Christendom is unsparing in its persecution of those who attempt to maintain a true faith in Jesus Christ. What has been true in the past will be brought to its ultimate fulfillment in this future time when the martyrs will be beyond number from every kindred, tongue, and nation. And next we see the mystery of the woman and the beast, verses 7 through 13, specifically verses 7 and 8, the beast who carries the woman. And the angel said to me, why do you wonder? I shall 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 is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the beast that he was and is not and will come. The beast who carries the woman is certainly a description of the Antichrist who was described in chapter 13. Hoyt writes, the identity of the beast is the first matter of explanation. He is the first beast of chapter 13. As in the former chapter, he has seven heads and ten horns. He makes war with the saints. He is wondered at by those whose names are not in the book of life. He is the beast that was and is not and yet is, and he is both a kingdom and a person. And the rise of the Antichrist to power will be the great harlot using her influence and assistance in bringing about the beast rise to power. But as a writer, she is ever trying to bring her influence to bear upon the beast, attempting to control and dominate it. The Beast's Seven Mountains, Gentile Kingdoms, verses 9 through 11. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must remain a little while. And the beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven and he goes to destruction. In the Old Testament, mountains are frequently symbols of kingdoms and are often identified with their greatest king. And so, at the same time, a mountain may picture a king and a kingdom. You might think of Mount Zion and the Temple Mountain, one Christ kingdom. The Temple Mount, the people will go up there and bring the glory of the nations into it. That's where Christ will reign from. The seven mountains, then, are seven Gentile kingdoms that follow one another in succession. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Rome. The woman is seen riding upon the seven empires, imposing her false religious standards, yet she is not one of them. In John's day, that is, at the time when he is receiving the vision, five of these great world empires had fallen, and the one that was in power was Rome. The revived Roman Empire will be the seventh, which will be followed by the eighth in the person of Antichrist as he comes into global power. It is interesting to note that the use of mountains in the symbolism for kingdoms may have another prophetic allusion, that as the seat of power for the great harlot in her final stage. As David Hunt suggests, only one city has more than 2,000 years been known as a city on seven hills. That is Rome. The Catholic Encyclopedia states, it is within the city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined. So further, the beast ten horns, the coming revived Roman Empire, verses 12 and 13. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast. The seven mountains are first primarily to the seven vast Gentile empires of world history. The 10 horns represents the kingdom of the seventh, which will be the kingdom through which Antichrist rises to power. Antichrist rise to power within the 10 nations and the subsequent dictatorial power is seen in Daniel 7, 23 through 25. And thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will rise, and another will rise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. And he will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one, and he will intend to make alteration in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. There will come a point when the 10 kings will all recognize the authority and power of the Antichrist and yield to him all of their power and authority. This will constitute him as the eighth kingdom. This will happen at the middle of the tribulation period for both Daniel 7.25 and Revelation 13.5 recognize the extent of Antichrist global power to be for the same amount of time, three and a half years or 42 months. The Beast's War Against Christ, verse 14. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful. The character of the revived Roman Empire will be anti-God. The nature of the Confederacy will be to overthrow or overturn the worship of the true God. This hatred for God will ultimately drive them to give all their power and authority to the Antichrist so that once and for all, faith in Christ can be ended and forever obliterated from the earth. The wholesale persecution of believers will no doubt be involved. This animosity against God will be focused in an unbearable hatred for Christ and his people, which will seal their doom. As the kings gather their armies vainly together alongside of the beast to confront the returning Christ and to destroy him, a futile imagination, can reference Psalm 2, you'll see that Christ will break the earth with a rod of iron. So these enemies of Christ, they will be overcome and they'll be destroyed. The defeat of the beast in the Ten Kings is assured because Christ the Lamb is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This same title was described to Jesus in Revelation 19.6, at his second coming to earth to judge the world, revealing the occasion when Christ and those who are with him shall overcome the beast. Revelation 19.11-16. And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Who are those who return with Christ? They are described as the called and chosen and faithful. Those who belong to the Lord who have been called, that is the Holy Spirit, has impressed the truth of the gospel upon them and they have responded by placing their trust in Him. They are chosen. The chosen are the very ones whom God has selected to be His own in eternity past. You see that in Ephesians 1-4. They are faithful. The faithful are individuals who demonstrate the reality of their calling and election by remaining faithful to Christ through life and death. They did not even love their own life. They were willing to lose it for Christ. They demonstrated they are the faithful ones. And next we see the destruction of the great harlot centered in Rome, verses 15-18. And he said to me, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw in the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. The beast and the ten kings of the revived Roman Empire will come to a time when the woman's demands and influence will no longer be tolerated. She will serve no political expediency to them and they will conspire together against her and destroy her. They will plunder her of her wealth, confiscating her vast riches and land holdings. To plunder is the meaning of the word make desolate. They will make her naked, that is, to expose her corruption and crimes before others. They will eat her flesh, the very destiny which befell Jezebel, the woman which led Israel into an immoral idolatry of Balinism. Picturing the worst and most ignoble form of death not given even a proper burial They will burn her up with fire a sentence which falls upon those who have been involved in the horrible offenses against God Robert Thomas notes The wording of this destiny comes from a legal formula condemning those who had committed detestable fornications. It speaks the utter destruction of a system of false religion that will have reached its peak in the days just before its destruction. Apparently, the common purpose of destroying the woman was implanted into the hearts of the beast and ten kings by God himself. Although they are by decision and destiny against God, without knowing it, they will still accomplish God's ultimate purpose. Even as God used Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to punish and judge Judah, God will use them to destroy the apostate church centered in Rome. Temper Longman III states, For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose. Now we know the real reason why the beast and its associated kings turn against the woman. God has made it so. God is in control and he will have the final victory. He will even use evil powers to accomplish his judgment. We see this in the Old Testament and how God used Babylon to punish sinful Israel, but then God turned against Babylon itself. The angel makes one last identification of the woman, the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. This statement is an indicator to John of the identification of the city where the harlot is centrally located. It is a statement that John could have easily understood. The city was reigning over the kings of the earth in John's day. And it was undoubtedly Rome. The question must be asked, was the angel speaking of the city of John's day or a city in the future that will be reigning over the kings of the earth? The answer is quite clear. The angel uses with John the present tense, speaking of the present situation. The same angel had earlier stated when discussing the seven Gentile kingdoms, and they are seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. The one that is, is Rome. If the angel was speaking of a future city located at a different place, a futuristic verb would be expected. The harlot of Revelation 17 is a city, a religious institution, a political force, and it is located at Rome. Charles Feinberg notes in this verse that the woman, the harlot, though a colossal system of apostasy and idolatry, is also to be thought of in terms of the city of her headquarters, namely Rome, and that her reign is worldwide. No wonder that when the head of the papal system addresses his followers, he does so by the salutation, Urbi et Orbi, to the city that is Rome and the world. Without a doubt, the angel related to John the identity of the city where the harlot will be located. Which city would it be? The woman who you saw is the great city which is reigning, which reigns over the kings of the earth. All right, there's where we've been. If you have a question about these notes, you can email Pastor. Save for a comma and a couple of words. I didn't contribute much to these notes, so if someone has an issue with the comma, we can talk about it. Anyways, this is Revelation. It's a wonderful book, and it's really, I don't know, I think the more we go through it, it's not complicated. I think we complicate it when we try imposing our own views on the text. God's Word is not, obviously there are things we don't fully grasp, but it is not, beyond comprehension for us and God is going to deal with we don't we don't need another you know we hope for a America that is Faithful to the Lord we hope for revival, but we don't need a better president we need we need Christ to rule we'll never have the perfect leader in this world, but Christ is coming, this book gives us hope, then God's going to deal with the injustices. Every aborted baby, every bit of corruption, every bit of idolatry, not one jot or tittle of it will be forgotten. And so this book should give us, this chapter should give us hope. and also an urgency to proclaim the gospel. So with that, let's pray and then we'll sing one final hymn. God, thank you for giving us your word and we thank you for the truths in it that you're going to deal with this religion, this false system of religion, Babylon, this false system that has blinded the nations and has led so many astray. They have blood on their hands Lord, but we know that you have not forgotten that Lord would you help us? Help us to not fret or worry about the days we're in, but remember that you are in control of these events. Things are happening according to your plan, and our job is not to fret or worry. Our job is, our responsibility is to trust you, to remain faithful. Help us to remain faithful, to live up to that title, the faithful God. That is who we want to be counted among. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.