THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Revelation: God's Revelation To His Servants Today On Events About To Occur

Part IV: "The Things Which Shall Be Hereafter": Events After The Rapture Of The Church

C. The Great Tribulation Period, Revelation 6:1-19:21

5. A Second View Of The Great Tribulation Period, Revelation 11:1-19:21

j. God's Call For Those IN "Babylon the Great" To LEAVE It

(Revelation 18:1-19:10)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

In Revelation 18:2, 4-5, God calls His "people" to "come out of" apostate "Babylon the Great," but even conservative Bible scholars disagree on what this entity IS! They hold that Revelation 17 describes the fall of religious "Babylon," but that the Revelation 18 "Babylon" is either the world, or Jerusalem or Rome or an end time religious system or a rebuilt city of Babylon. (This latter view is held since Jeremiah 51:6, 8 and Isaiah 13:19-22 predict a sudden, complete, final fall of the city of Babylon and its never again being raised, prophecies that have not been fulfilled and that suggest the need for Babylon to be rebuilt so it can be utterly destroyed. (spiritualtruth.org; discoverrevelation.com) Also, the Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 973 claims the Revelation 18 "Babylon" is "political" apostasy and the Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1808 calls it "commercial Babylon."

Consequently, the Bible-believing Christian may well wonder how to apply God's call to "come out" of the Revelation 18 "Babylon the Great" if even conservative Bible scholars cannot agree on what this entity IS!

Need: We thus ask, "How can we identify the Revelation 18 'Babylon the Great' so we might leave or avoid it?!"

I. Rev. 18:1-2a points us to other Scripture passages that help us identify the Rev. 18 "Babylon the Great":

A. The descending strong angel in Rev. 18:1-2a who announces that the Rev. 18 "Babylon the Great" has fallen and illumines the world with his glory recalls a similar descent and strong angel action in Rev. 10:1-3.

B. That Rev. 10 angel presented a timeline from the Gen. 9:8-17 Noahic Covenant to the Gen. 12:1-3 Abrahamic Covenant and exposed the religious "apostasy," or departure from God, begun in that time by Semiramis, wife of Nimrod, founder of Babylon. Her "human-works-salvation" cult now infects world faiths and Christendom, Bryce Self, "Semiramis, Queen of Heaven;" Harry A. Ironside, "Babylonian Religion," ldolphin.org.

C. We then learned via Rev. 16:17-21 that this religious apostasy, clarified in Zechariah 5 as a "woman" sitting in an "ephah," was then starting to compromise with idolatrous materialism in Satan's then-budding world commercial system, the "ephah," that this "woman" would be confined by God in the "ephah" for later judgment there and that the "ephah" would be put on an idol pedestal, the coming Revived Roman Empire!

D. Thus, the Rev. 18 "Babylon the Great" is the Rev. 17 RELIGIOUS apostasy "woman" that is INSIDE the "ephah" of Satan's world commercial system, so Rev. 18 merely FOCUSES on her FALL (as follows):

1. Rev. 18:3 claims the world's kings and merchants had committed "immorality," or idolatrous materialism, with its religious apostasy "woman" of "Babylon the Great" inside the "ephah." Thus, when this religious entity is destroyed, the world's kings (not the local 10 Revived Roman Empire kings who kill her, Rev. 17:16-17) and the world's merchants will lament, standing far off to avoid her fate (Rev. 18:9-10, 11-19).

2. At that time, the Jeremiah 51:6, 8 and Isaiah 13:19-22 prophecies of Babylon's sudden, complete, final fall will literally be fulfilled in God's plan NOT to eradicate Babylon in its INITIAL form as ONE CITY, BUT in its FINAL, SYSTEMATIZED FORM of MANY CITIES WORLDWIDE, Rev. 18:8, 21-23. The center of this system will then be Rome, the city on 7 hills that ruled the world in John's era (Rev. 17:9b, 18), NOT a REBUILT CITY of BABYLON, and this latter day "Babylon the Great" entity will be a worldwide SYSTEM seen in the fall of the world's cities along with its center in Rome, Rev. 16:19!

3. Significantly, Jeremiah's call to Seraiah in Jer. 51:61-64 to tie a stone to his scroll predicting the local city of Babylon's lasting fall and to throw it into the local Euphrates River not to rise again to signify that fall EXPANDS in application in Rev. 18:21: there a strong angel throws a great millstone into the sea to show "Babylon the Great's" lasting fall. What evil began in the local city of Babylon is later judged worldwide!

II. Opposite the grief of the world's kings and merchants, the fall of this RELIGIOUS apostasy will cause JOY for the GODLY, for it will involve GOD'S VENGEANCE upon THEIR MAIN FOE, Rev. 18:20-24:

A. At "Babylon the Great's" fall, God will call the saints, apostles and prophets of all Bible history to rejoice, for He will have avenged them of this long-term religious apostasy's destructive opposition, Revelation 18:20-23.

B. Indeed, the blood of all the prophets and saints and all the slain on earth will be found in her, Rev. 18:24.

III. This rejoicing will spread to heaven's saints, including the Church, the 24 elders, Revelation 19:1-3, 4-6!

IV. Then, opposite "Babylon the Great's" fate, the TRUE Church will prepare for blessing, Rev. 19:7-10:

A. Revelation 19:7 has God's call for believers to rejoice and honor Christ, for His wedding is come and his wife, the pretribulation raptured Church, has made herself ready. The Church is granted to be clothed in fine linen, her righteous works performed on earth before the rapture (Rev. 19:8), and John is told to write of the blessing for all who are called to the Lamb's marriage supper, that these are all God's true words, Revelation 19:9.

B. Hebrew wedding customs of John's era help clarify these events for us, Ibid., Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 975:

1. In the first stage, the marriage is legally consummated when the bride's parents receive payment of the dowry from the groom. Jesus accomplished this payment by His death on the cross, Rom. 3:21-28; Ibid.

2. Between the first and second stage, the groom returns to his home while the bride prepares her wedding dress. Similarly, Christ returned to heaven to prepare a place for the Church (John 14:2) while the Church performs godly works of Christian service for God's glory, her wedding gown (Rev. 19:8; Ibid., p. 974).

3. In the second stage, the groom returns to the bride's parents' home to acquire his bride, what occurs at the pretribulation rapture when Christ comes to take the Church back to heaven, John 14:3; Ibid., p. 975.

4. The wedding supper is the third stage, a celebration lasting for days after the bride and groom are united. This corresponds to the 1,000-year reign of Christ after His Second Coming to the earth when believers of all eras celebrate the union of Christ and His Church, and the invited guests are Old Testament and Great Tribulation saints (Dan. 12:13), and nature celebrates, being released from Adam's curse, Rom. 8:18-21.

C. Being told by the angel to write of these blessed truths, John fell at the feet of the angel who spoke with him in worship, but the angel corrected him, telling him to worship God, for the "very nature or purpose of prophecy is to testify of Jesus Christ and to inform believers of 'what is yet to come' (John 16:13)," Ibid.; Rev. 19:9-10.

V. So, in view of the great CONTRAST between the FATE of RELIGIOUS "Babylon the Great" and the FUTURE of ALL TRUE SAINTS, God in Rev. 18:4-5 calls for His people who were still in "Babylon the Great" in the Great Tribulation to LEAVE it that they not share in her sins and so also in her plagues!

VI. In application to US, John 3:16 with Ephesians 2:8-9 and Acts 4:10-12 counter all groups that deny that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Since all such groups will end up in "Babylon the Great," Semiramis' full-blown, "human-works-salvation" religion, God wants US to LEAVE any group that does not hold to salvation by faith alone in Christ alone and fellowship with Him, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18!

Lesson: (1) All groups that teach human-works-salvation reflect what began at ancient Babylon and will blossom to full sin and indulgence in idolatrous materialism so that God must destroy it as "Babylon the Great," Revelation 17-18. (2) As this FATE so CONTRASTS with the DESTINY of God's TRUE SAINTS who hold to justification by faith alone in Christ alone, God calls believers TODAY to leave "Babylon the Great" and to fellowship with Him!

Application: (1) May we trust alone in Christ alone for eternal salvation, John 3:16 with Ephesians 2:8-9 and Acts 4:10-12. (2) If we are in a religious group that does not hold to justification by faith alone in Christ alone, that group will end up in "Babylon the Great" for severe judgment, so God calls us to leave it and fellowship with Him!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

"Pope Francis" recently "prayed in Istanbul's . . . Blue Mosque . . . [He] removed his shoes . . . stood facing in the direction of Mecca, and bowed his head in long prayer." (Deborah Ball and Ayla Albayrak, "Pope Francis Prays in Mosque in Show of Commitment to Christian-Muslim Relations," The Wall Street Jour., 11/29/2014; wsj.com.

The god "Allah" toward whom the Pope then prayed was "the pagan idol/god of Muhammad's tribe before he was born" (Dave Hunt, "Islam and the Gospel," The Berean Call, April, 1999, p. 1).

Yet, alleged Protestant minister Robert Schuller was cited in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner on September 19, 1987 (Religion page) as saying: "It's time for Protestants to go to the shepherd [the pope] and say, 'What do we have to do to come home?'" (cited in Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast, 1994, p. 412)

On top of this, a Baptist Church in our area has had a joint religious service with a Roman Catholic Church.

The spread of paganism in initially pagan Arabia to Muhammad's religion of Islam, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church offering prayer to Islam's initially pagan god Allah, Robert Schuller's call for Protestants to "come home" to Roman Catholicism and a local Baptist Church's joint religious service with a Roman Catholic Church are all moves that promote the forming of "Babylon the Great" that God will judge in Revelation 17-18!

May we then each do our part to "come out of" such RELIGIOUS "Babylon the Great" entities and efforts, that we might heed the Lord's call and fellowship with Him and His true saints!